Battery light comes on and car stalls HELP

jonathonjordan

We bought a 2nd hand car yesterday its a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Ls K reg. We set off and suddenly the battery warning light came on and all the electrics failed. It started up again no problem. We drove about 12 miles home in it - mainly motorway = then when we got home we were reversing to park and the same thing happened. It happened 3 times in all. It has just passed its MOT as well. Does anybody know what might be causing this to happen? Thanks in advance

anewman

MOT only checks the safety of the car. It does not service the car or check the operation of the engine in any way. To ensure proper running of your car you should get it serviced inline with the manufacturer's recommendations. Usually yearly.

It's possibly an alternator or battery problem. Any decent auto-electrician would be able to test these, or you could do it yourself. All you would need is a multimeter (less than £10) and a Haynes manual should explain how (about £18). I am suspicious of those free checks myself as you'll be going there thinking it is possibly needing replacing, all they have to say is it does (even if it doesn't) and they get your money. It could even be something simple like the alternator belt is not tensioned correctly.

Are you sure it is not the car simply stalling at slow speeds? I am not criticising your driving, but it could be that the throttle body needs cleaning - symptoms for that are usually when you come to a stop, the revs will fall then fall even further and the car will cut out. This tends to happen on higher mileage cars as a result of the exhaust gas recirculation system which inevitably sends a little oil through too which gums up on the throttle body.

Markyt

Check the battery terminals are connected properly - ie tight.

Conor_3

Loose battery terminals wouldn't cause it to stop as the alternator would keep it running.

Assuming it's not the driver stalling it, my bet is on a broken engine earth strap.

350nutter

If the earth strap was broken, the starter wouldn't be able to draw enough current to turn the engine.

The OP says 'all the electrics failed', I don't know if an engine would run with out a battery having never tried it, but I'd be suspicious of a battery connection as I can't think of anything else that would kill all the electrics.

goldspanners

Conor wrote: »

Loose battery terminals wouldn't cause it to stop as the alternator would keep it running.

Assuming it's not the driver stalling it, my bet is on a broken engine earth strap.

a loose battery terminal could cause this.
the battery light is coming on because your engine has stalled and the battery is no longer being charged by the alternator.
you will find when you first switch on your ignition the battery light will also come,this doesnt mean theres a fault with the battery does it?
this does not necesarilly mean it is an electrical fault.
it sounds as if it is only doing it at low speed or during manouvers,sounds more like a fuel/ignition (i.e spark plugs not key) problem than electrical.

jonathonjordan

Thanks for all your replies - will have a look at the spark plugs and check battery connections this weekend. Got the Haynes manual but it all looks so daunting