Private Car Sale Transaction, Car Unroadworthy.

honestgaz

onomatopoeia99 said:

caprikid1 said:

I would normally expect a faulty alternator to mean the battery light comes on at the point the car is started as I believe it measures charging not the battery condition.

I have a Twingo which shares a platform with the Smart.  The alternator failed last November and the battery light only came on about two minutes before there was insufficient charge in the (two week old) battery to run the car.

Now, it was 11pm and I was running the lights heater and rear demister, which I turned off immediately on seeing the battery light (I figured I could make it the four miles home on streetlights + DRLs.), but the warning lights for the ABS and ESP also came on a minute later, indicating the voltage was falling further, and it conked a minute after that. So it seems like the battery warning light on the Twingo version of that platform is triggered at something quite a bit lower than the 14V I would expect and lower than the 11.8-12V a non-charging battery with no load would sit at.

Thankyou for sharing.....This is exactly what happened with the Smart Roadster, battery light came on followed by the lights for ABS etc, then died. Interesting, thankyou

honestgaz

Thankyou for sharing Alederbank. This is very helpful. Yeah it wasn't me, as bought the car in March LOL. Think it is just coincidental and cant really say it was the seller, unless I can ascertain details of the user who posted that. I know he lives in Stourbridge.
But thankyou, helps a lot

Ditzy_Mitzy

honestgaz said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

caprikid1 said:

I would normally expect a faulty alternator to mean the battery light comes on at the point the car is started as I believe it measures charging not the battery condition.

I have a Twingo which shares a platform with the Smart.  The alternator failed last November and the battery light only came on about two minutes before there was insufficient charge in the (two week old) battery to run the car.

Now, it was 11pm and I was running the lights heater and rear demister, which I turned off immediately on seeing the battery light (I figured I could make it the four miles home on streetlights + DRLs.), but the warning lights for the ABS and ESP also came on a minute later, indicating the voltage was falling further, and it conked a minute after that. So it seems like the battery warning light on the Twingo version of that platform is triggered at something quite a bit lower than the 14V I would expect and lower than the 11.8-12V a non-charging battery with no load would sit at.

Thankyou for sharing.....This is exactly what happened with the Smart Roadster, battery light came on followed by the lights for ABS etc, then died. Interesting, thankyou

Just to caveat the above, I think (not an expert, mind) that the Roadster Smart is based off the Mk 1 - i.e. Mercedes-Smart-Proper - variant, whereas the Twingo-twin Smart is the Mk 2.  There are probably similarities, but yours won't be the same car as @onom@onomatopoeia99 's.

photome

honestgaz said:

Thankyou for sharing Alederbank. This is very helpful. Yeah it wasn't me, as bought the car in March LOL. Think it is just coincidental and cant really say it was the seller, unless I can ascertain details of the user who posted that. I know he lives in Stourbridge.
But thankyou, helps a lot

Says he is from Stavengar on that forum…but that was in January