Hello

Wondering if anyone can shed any light, the car is an 04 streetka.
The story goes...battery light came on weeks ago.

Multimeter showed 11 volts and dropping while engine running. No charge.
Checked smart charge wire, nothing suspicous, unplugged smart charge to see if alternator would revert to standard 13.6v and it didnt.

Eexpected duff alternator so removed it and took it to my local man for a test on his bench. Test showed it was fine. The chap who I completely trust said it sounded like an alternator and said he'd 'load' it up and see how it coped. It coped fine. Very confused....

Put the alternator back on. Start the car, no battery light, 13.6v without smart charge. 14.4v or there abouts with smart charge. Somehow the problem had rectified itself. Was okay for a few journeys then battery light came on again and car died on me leaving me stranded.

Today i started the car, same again 11 or so volts with and without smart charge plugged in. Drove around the block then it started to show 13.6v without and then 14.4v with.

So to summerise, it appears (in my eyes at least) the alternator seems fine, and the smart charge seems fine and I have an intermittent fault.

My only other ideas are the other wiring.

Any comments and ideas would be very helpful as im struggling now and due to the intermitent nature of the problem I cannot trust the car to use at all.

Thanks in advance.

 

As you've discovered intermittent faults are a real pain.
Why not enlist a helper, put the digi meter on and have a good wiggle of the wiring.
tabetha

 

on some models the voltage is controlled by the ecu and there is a fairly common fault of the wire running along the wing on the focus' that have this problem shorting out

 

Yes that is the smart charge system that I refer to. Im very confident that is not at fault here.

Tabetha that is a good idea. The fault would no doubt be easier to find if it was prestn as I was looking for it.