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Re: Flat Battery Posted by Ari [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Flat Battery, Peter Rainbird, Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:11:31 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
A bad diode in the alternator will show up just like a bad alternator or a bad VR - the battery light will be on, assuming it works. If the BAT light comes ON when the car is turned ON but not started, and goes OUT when the engine starts, the alternator is doing it's job.
I'm going to assume from your wording that it's the same battery. It may be a bad/old battery. Car batteries aren't designed to be fully discharged - every time it happens, the battery loses capacity. Take a brand new battery and completely discharge it 4 or 5 times, and it will act like a 6 year old battery. Take an old battery and discharge it fully a few times, and it just won't hold a charge. You can charge it up with no problem, but the charge leaks away very quickly. Of course, since the battery is now more prone to discharge, every extra time you find a flat battery, it has lost even more of what little life it has left.
So - how old is the battery, and how many times has it gone flat recently?
Yes, trunk lights have killed many a battery (as Kevin points out). However, sneak discharge paths through other systems (where you start pulling fuses) are rare. That's not to say that they don't happen, but I'll bet for every sneak path in a radio, there are 25 just plain old or multiply-discharged batteries.
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