Electrical Glitch?

[marlinh]

I just went out to start the car after it sat for a week. I popped the hood and started the car. I am pretty sure the warning lights came on and went out like they should, oil light for sure but I wasn't concentrating on that. I went out to look under the hood. I got back in the car to move it and noticed the charge and brake lights were on bright. Without shutting off the car, I immediately checked the charging voltage at the back of the alternator and battery. It was 14.6 volts. I let the car run for a minute while I contemplated things, then decided to shut it off. I restarted it right away and both the warning lights went out and the voltage at the battery was still 14.6 V. I took if for a short drive and it seems to be working fine.

What the heck? Is this a possible glitch in the dash? Warning light circuit? Any ideas?

[dlb]

14.6 v seems maybe SLIGHTLY high to me, but i'm only talking by like .3 or .4 v. our ford has a volt gauge so when it had alternator issues, i could see that the charge warning light only comes on at 16+ v. i wonder what the threshold is for the tercel warning lights. maybe the sensor for the warning lights is faulty but that would sure be unusual.

[marlinh]

I don't think 14.6 is too high, but I don't understand why the light stayed on and then went out the next start and the voltage was the same. These warning lights, I believe, are meant to come on only when the alternator is not charging.

[jimcrazy]

my 86 fwd wagon is doing the same thing every now and then, sometimes I can shut it off and have the key out before the heater fan shuts off

[Petros]

check the fan belt tension, but more likely it is a sticky voltage regulator. my never been an issue, or it might mean it is on its way out. either way, it usually means it is not putting out volage. 14.4 volts should not be too high for charging, but it could be over charging if it does not turn off. fully charge battery is 13.2 volts and takes over 14 v to charge it, but it should drop back to the 13.2 when fully charged (after running for a few min, up to ten).

[WarWagon]

Hey petros THIS is an electric glitch.
shut down my car when I got to work then I realized I had to move it and I parked in like a foot of snow by the way. I started the car again and every now and then I will get a howling noise like the alternator is making a bunch of ruckus. That's because when I was trying to back out my clutch isn't all that great cuz I need a new one and I killed it maybe 2 3 times. So on the last try it started howling so I went for a little drive to maybe charge the battery back up before I turned it off finally and when I was about 3 miles away from work in a neighborhood I've never been in before all of the lights on the dash came on and the RPM gauge in speedo were flickering and not reading the right readings and a burning smell was very evident. So I shut her off and ended up a half an hour later we were able to jump it and it start right back up. It was coming from the the harness somewhat by the oil filter where they all come out of a singular plastic tubing surrounding that part of the harness. I don't know what happened but it was very interesting and it has never happened since nor does the alternator howl anymore but then again it hasn't been -20% like it was that day.

[marlinh]

I would carefully check the wiring harness that runs along the block there. I have seen the insulation chafed through on a couple vehicles now.

[Petros]

I had that particular harness short out and melt all of the insulation off, and start a fire. the insulation gets brittle from the engine heat, and than eventually crumbles and causes contact between the wires inside that plastic cover. It eventually Blew the main fuse, had to use a foil gum wrapper in the fuse and electrical tape on the bare wires (after the insulation burned off) to get it to run and drive it home. never made any noise but I noticed the dash lights flickering on and off before I saw the smoke from the smoldering wire insulation coming from under the hood.

[WarWagon]

That sounds just like my my incident. Good to know!

[Petros]

fairly easy fix, I just made some new wires that use the individual bayonet connectors and plugged them into the various connectors on the engine, distributor, trans and fuse block. I am still driving on the repaired harness 6 years later.

[gnarnold]

My head lights started flickering about 3 days ago.then tonight my battery was dead (new battery) i charged it .so then I noticed the brake warning light and batt charge light were on and that's when the headlights went almost dead ,the instrument panel light barely responds to adjustment- nearly dead. blinkers are out .and the radio turns on when head lights switch is turned off.need that beast to work tomorrow.. Any ideas

[ARCHINSTL]

@ gnarnold:
Below paste from member garyfish back in 210, all related to alternator issues demonstrated by concurrent illumination of brake and charge lights:
relevant threads:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5472
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4290
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4062
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=697
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=536

You might find more by doing an Advanced Search using "brake and charge lights on" using the quotation marks.
Tom M.

[gnarnold]

Ok well just so happens that I solved a engine idle aap vacuum hose was off .drove it went to turn on headlights and total shut down managed to coast into an oreillys battery dead new alt new starter old voltage regulator 30$ for a new volt reg going to give that a try .my meter says 03.50 v with key off .any ideas

[Petros]

you are clearly not charging the battery. Only a few reasons for that: 1) fan belt loose, 2) bad alternator, 3) bad voltage regulator, 4) bad connection or contact within the charging system.

[gnarnold]

I took a chance ......I rolled the proverbial dice and put my money on .....voltage regulator..found one in next city over then about an hour of standing in awe as the young man behind the counter did not believe a condenser next to the voltreg was a real physical part .even after reciting a few lines straight from this website he could not locate a picture of one on the store computer nor his smart phone therefore it did not exsist .) one would might assume that the story goes on with at least 2-3 more trips back to the auto store as a result of the usual wrong this or size miscommunication that .but nope the story stops here because I switched it out got s jump and WHAM ! charge /brakes lights went off .headlights are as bright dim as they were on brights.blinkers worked perfect everything is fine .this kinda event does not happen every day in the land of tercelonia.rejoice ! Thank YOU Jesus ! And thank all of you who made this incident a lot more easier to resolve with YOUR dedication and intelligence as a whole .YOU RULE !
YEAH!