One evening, a couple of days before Christmas and about 2 miles into a town drive the red battery warning light came on. In the old days this meant (i) a broken drive belt, (ii) dodgy alternator or (iii) a loose connection. According to the driver's manual that's all it means today too !
After a few miles the light flickered and went off...then it came on and ... er, off. My mission was important so I decided to take a chance and carry on. This went on for about 30 minutes and I carried out an electrical shut down routine - no aircon, headlights off, no radio, no fan and even used the handbrake when stopped so as not to light up the brake lights. When I parked up at the station to collect someone I kept the engine running but had to switch off when I went into the station.
Crossing my fingers (the battery is 7 years old) I started the car later quite easily, the battery warning light had gone and now after several drives I haven't seen it on except at start up as usual.
Should I forget about it (but I do have a 1000 mile trip to do in France in a week or two) or do I do something.
All connections are tight, the drive belt is still there and taut and without the engine running a multi meter shows 12.5 -ish volts across the terminals and when running about 13.8 - 14.2 volts, so the alternator is working - or at least now it is.
By the way, how long would a diesel car keep going without the battery being charged - the fancy electronics will be using up juice even though there are no spark plugs ?
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Tue 27 Dec 11 at 18:54
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Audi A4 B6 - 04 1.9D Red Warning Light (.. new
Audi A4 B6 - 04 1.9D Red Warning Light .. new