Road trip headed home and my alternator bit the dust. Battery light came on, confirmed it was not charging. I bought a battery to give me 50 miles to a mechanic with and replace the alternator. Everything is charging fine and running great, but the dang battery light is still on? I’m not stopping until I get home, but I’m just curious if there is a known way to reset the battery light??
New battery, new alternator, battery light still on? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter 12guns
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gregnash
Anal Retentive Analyst
Good knot know that it fixed itself. I want to say that others have said there is a procedure to get the ECU to do a reset of sorts in situations like this (basically leave battery disconnected for like 30 mins).
- Thread starter
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I spoke to Shannon, the battery light came back on after a few more miles of driving. It was odd, I saw slight voltage drop when the light went off. Then 20 miles later the battery light pops back on and the voltage jumped back up ever so slightly on my gauge. I have checked the battery is holding 12.65. The alternator is putting out 14.50. I will try leaving the cable disconnected for a long period of time and see if that resets.
Check your factory grounds. I had a wire wear and touch metal and it would cause all sorts of voltage issues.
^ as @WickedPickle said, check grounds. Also check battery connections and their terminations at the alternator/fuse block (voltage regulator)/etc. If the mechanic replaced any leads, make sure they used the right gauge.
I chased a voltage issue on a previous vehicle for days until I found they had used a slightly cheaper wire (narrower ga) with thicker shielding. It looked like the right size, but it was creating resistance between the alternator and voltage regulator and the regulator was running the alternator hot to compensate. Unlikely that this is the issue because your voltage issue is intermittent but an easy check.
I chased a voltage issue on a previous vehicle for days until I found they had used a slightly cheaper wire (narrower ga) with thicker shielding. It looked like the right size, but it was creating resistance between the alternator and voltage regulator and the regulator was running the alternator hot to compensate. Unlikely that this is the issue because your voltage issue is intermittent but an easy check.
