About 2 months ago my impreza wouldnt start.got told it was the alternator was fecked as the battery light and handbrake light stayed on.bought a new alternator and a couple of weeks later it happend again.took the battery back to andrew pages and they charged it up and said it was fine but took it off the charger and left it for the weekend then on monday morning it was losing charge so i got a replacement one so i thought problem solved!!

All has been fine till this morning and its happend again,battery light and handbrake light on but it did start .i dont think iv driven it more than a 100 miles since the alternator and new battery have been replaced.

Has anybody had the same problems?

 

What model and year car?.

 

2003 wrx blobeye saloon

just took it out for a spin,on the way back all the clock died then coughed,splutterd then died.waited 5 mins started up was fine then got it home

 

Bad connection somewhere maybe?

 

If the car is dying with it running id say the alternator or associated wiring are faulty,
The battery only matters when the engine isnt running, the car should run with no battery once started, so if it cant do that then its your charging circuit.

 

its the first time it died while driving,think it must be wiring as i doubt 2 alternators would be faulty.

thanks for the replies

 

it only takes a loose connection to cause lots of issues on cars lol

 

i think i need to find a local auto electrics place!

 

You say the car should run without the battery when the engine is running?????.

 

Yes, I do it all the time with another car I have,
It has no battery so I use jump leads from another car to the battery terminals of car 2,
Once started I remove jump leads and car 2 will continue to run.

 

just a quick update.....

took the battery off and charged it (15 hours!) put in back on and started no problems and no BATTERY or HANDBRAKE LIGHT staying on,took if for a 4 mile run.must be draining power from somewhere as the battery and alternator were bought in november

 

pop to a Auto electrician, they will soon tell you.

 

what voltage is the alternator putting out with lights/heater/heated window on?

 

i havent a voltage tester,the same problem with 2 different alternators and 2 batterys.im going to get it to an auto electrician next week

 

UPDATE..........got hold of a voltage tester and after lots of switching this,that and the other on and off. i must be a blower fan problem and with that on it was only reading in the 12's

 

with a lot of load on it will only show 12 volt something,
does the tester only do voltage ? if it does current/Amps let us know and we can talk you thru all the steps to do the tests,
At the moment with a volt tester you need to tell us the Volts with nothing on just across the battery,
Then with engine running and no load, ie nothing turned on,
Then again with everything switched on ie under load,

If you get a meter that reads current then that goes inline with one of the main leads,
That shows the current that is being drawn from the battery with no engine running,
This way you can go thru the fuses and see what is drawing all the current.

hth

 

But be careful doing current readings, some may overload the meter....

 

the alternator and battery were fine on saturday afternoon when tested,ran spot on yesterday and this morning the battery light and handbrake light is on again,i feel an expensive job is on the cards to find the problem!

 

Pop to an Auto electrician as you said a while back,
Get a diagnosis and you can move forward instead of half a job and problems,
seems harsh but if you come out one morning to a car that wont start you will wish it was sorted.

 

You should be seeing about 13.5v to 14v.....even with lights + fans + sub on full, I would still see over 12v....................if you get 12v with all accessory's off then you have an alternator / charging circuit fault.

 

The alternator should be a smart charge unit I recon Andrew page have sold you the wrong unit did you give them numbers off the old unit or did they look it up.

 

i didnt get the alernator from andrew pages,the same problem has happend with the alternator and battery that were on the car and the new battery and new alernator i bought in november

 

Then the problem would seem to be on the car?

Have you yet verified that you haven't a small current leak?

Switch EVERYTHING off. Disconnect -ve lead from battery. Put multimeter on DC Amps. Connect multimeter red lead to disconnected battery LEAD, connect multimeter black lead to battery -ve. Take the reading.
DO NOT attempt to switch anything on in this condition.

 

the auto electrician is oh holiday.

one thing iv noticed is that whe i put the blowers on then off there is a clicking noise coming from under the dash area

 

i kind of have the same problem at the moment, i dont have any lights but if i leave my car stood for 2 days the battery is dead!

i know my alternator is throwing out a low voltage code, which i had removed as its been fine for a year...

replaced with a so called new battery, but still dead after a couple of days, so going to buy a charger this weekend and see what happens.

If that fails im going to put on a new alternator, but i have a sneeky suspicion its the head unit that's taking the battery out as when i replaced it thats when i started getting a flat battery...

 

iv had a brand new alternator and battery in the last couple of months,it took 15 hours to charge the battery up the other day,my car was fine for 9 months before these problems

 

When you say brand new battery - where was it from?

replaced anything electrical in your car over the last 9 months?

Will keep you updated how i get on and what i find, dont use my car that often so im not in a crazy rush to sort, but going to start this weekend trouble shooting

 

brand new bosch s4 battery-the same that was on it,nothing electrical over the last 9 months,something is draining the power but will take it to my auto electrician when he is back off holiday.lucky iv another nice car to use

 

you have the battery/alternator lights on, thats why I dont think its your tracker or alarm or anything draining it,
These lights come on to show a fault not that you have something drawing the current when its turned off,
If it wasnt a fault on something these lights wouldnt be on and you would just keep getting a flat battery.
hth