Important! : Whats wrong??

17th July 2013, 18:00

Hey guys,
Monday last week i bought my first saxo vtr 1999 mk1.
Had a brand new battery fitted (i was there whilst the guy bought and fitted)
Started the car first time every time up until the day before yesterday.
The car started acting like the battery was going flat? She would chug until nothing more (the chug got slower and slower with every turn of the key)
Leave her half an hour and she would still chug slowly but not as slow and the car would fire up.
Sometimes the car would start and run for a few minutes before starting to bog down (cd player would go off, power steering would stop working, air bag light would come on etc.. before then cutting out, but then if i revved her everything would go back to being normal)??
Im not very good with cars at all and wouldn't know what to look at?
Any help from you guys would be muchly appreciated!

17th July 2013, 18:20

Sounds like the alternator is dieing mate

17th July 2013, 18:31

sounds like you may need a new alternator belt, sometimes the belts can slip and not squeak so the alternator turns slower at idle.

Other than that, chances are you need an alternator.

If you got a multimeter, measure the battery voltage, when you start the car it should immediately go up to 13v across the battery, if it doesn't your alternator needs looked at

17th July 2013, 19:25

Sorry i should of mentioned i tested the battery with my digital multimeter.
When the car is not running the multimeter read 12.1v and when the car is running with wipers going, lights on, radio on etc..the multimeter then reads 13+v which to my understanding means both the batt and alternator are ok? but im probably wrong lol

17th July 2013, 21:49

Could anyone help with this at all?

17th July 2013, 22:26

No, the battery should read at least 12.6V with the terminals disconnected, in a charged state.

12.1 shows that the battery is starting to sulfate and its worn out.

17th July 2013, 22:30

Oh i havent tested it without the terminals disconnected lol dur...ill do that tomorrow and report back!
Took the battery back to Halfords earlier and they tested the battery to be perfectly fine :/

17th July 2013, 22:31

I should also mention that the battery was bought brand new from Halfords last Monday the 8th

17th July 2013, 22:37

Ahh yes I missed that, in your first post

Alternator and your battery must be okay

Check your earth leads, if they are dirty, that can give you slow starting and no start.

I had loose terminals and I was getting the same symptoms as a flat battery.

17th July 2013, 23:31

+1 on loose terminals, had it on my old 106 gti

18th July 2013, 12:19

Loose terminals on the battery as in the leads connected to it are loose? sorry for sounding so stupid!
Also where are the earth leads lol?

18th July 2013, 12:42

There's a few, there attached to the chassis.

18th July 2013, 12:49

i dont suppose you'd know where i should look do you mate? ive found one of them so far lol

18th July 2013, 13:24

One goes to just behind the battery tray onto the body, the other goes straight to your gearbox.

check all your wiring around the battery terminals though. where the loom goes into the terminal itself especially.

18th July 2013, 16:47

thanks mate ill check all that now and report back

18th July 2013, 21:26

Well i took my wire brush to the battery terminals, and went hunting for the earths,
Found 5 in total....One just infront of the battery tray, one just behind the battery tray, one attached to the gear box and one on grounded on some metal by the headlights on each side, wire brushed all these, then i took the wires from my alternator too and wire brushed those as all these earths were really grimey, fingers crossed she now seems fine, will check again after she's sat through the night and report back

Thanks for all your help guys!

20th July 2013, 20:20

Well the issue is still there

but know where as bad it was before i cleaned all the earths i could find!
Today she started fine, idled fine BUT then started to bog down and before i could hit the throttle she cut out

tried to start her back up again straight away and that failed, she just started to act like the battery was flat again

literally waited 5 minutes and she started up again first time :/ any other ideas on this?

20th July 2013, 21:13

Are you sure you checked the terminals? like where the actual wires go into the connectors on the car side.

put up a pic of your terminals.

20th July 2013, 22:57

i checked the battery terminals if thats what you mean? sorry mate im quite a dumb ass with cars just learning lol can you point me in the right direction if its not the actual battery terminals your on a bout?

21st July 2013, 15:58

Put a picture up!

21st July 2013, 17:48

Well here are the pictures i have no idea wether i took a picture of the right thing or not be here goes nothing!

21st July 2013, 17:49

i should also mention that last night i noticed the battery light on the dash was on but very faint, faint enough that you can't tell its on in the day light but you can when its dark.

21st July 2013, 22:35

hmm I had that.

Its definitely a problem on your main wiring circuits.

i.e alternator, starter, fusebox, battery cables. all the big ones.

22nd July 2013, 15:39

i would honestly say alternator. ive been through six alternators this year! problems i had are no power steering, no heaters, rear heater, stereo would turn off, lights go dim... sometimes it would start fine, but following that the few times after would take longer to start up and eventually nto start at all....

23rd July 2013, 11:59

But the alternator has been tested?
Without the engine running the digital multimeter comes with a reading of 12.5v and with the engine running with all the things i can find electrical turned on the reading goes up to 13.4v which shows that the alternator is charging the battery as it should and the battery isn't draining!
Its really getting on a my nerves now haha, ive found another earth thats bolted down onto a rust spot, so im going to try moving that earth and see what that does.
I checked out the engine bay wiring loom (that i could reach/see easily) and that looks ok.

23rd July 2013, 12:01

Martin, could it be those round things that connect onto the battery? i have like plastic screw caps which keep the positive and neutral cables connected to that battery, i was thinking maybe im not getting a good enough connection?

23rd July 2013, 17:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saxo_Walton

Martin, could it be those round things that connect onto the battery? i have like plastic screw caps which keep the positive and neutral cables connected to that battery, i was thinking maybe im not getting a good enough connection?

Well there must be a reason they don't use those terminals anymore

Not sure what it is, maybe if you changed them and it fixed it we'll know? You could write a battery terminal conversion guide

I've never had that type of battery terminal before, except in my old 405 DTurbo. even then, only one terminal was screw type.

23rd July 2013, 22:48

Hmm ill see what i can do there then, might go the scrappy and rip off some old terminal bolts and see if i can find a way of converting them, im not too bad with electrics