MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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'96 Diesel Escort Van. The battery warning light seems to be very faintly illuminated on my van. Has been for a couple of weeks but seems to only happen intermitently, and not on every journey. Battery was replaced in January so I'd be surprised if there's a problem with that. My thoughts are:
Fault with dynamo, so battery is undercharged?
Fault with warning light?
Old glow-plugs placing high demand on battery?
Drives and starts with no problems.
Any ideas?
Should I not worry and just keep going?
Dodgy Ford 'lectrics would be my guess 🙂
Drive it till it breaks
Glow plugs only on when you start so not them
Dynamo - you use an alternator and you would have stopped starting if this was the issue but worth checking IMHO
Dodgy wiring - perhaps shorting out
EDIT : see below but good call re slipping belt but it will probably squeal when it does this or do it a the same revs
It is either a problem with the alternator (dyno's stopped being used in the late 60's) or I would check the belt that drives the alternator as well if this is slipping it could cause the light to glow.
Could also be a bad connection at the battery alsways worth removing them and giving them a quick clean up with a wire brush.
Old glow plugs should not cause this problem unless they are staying on all the time.
If you have a volt meter you should be able to measure the voltage with the engine running and I beleive it should be approx 14 volts if it is less than this it probably is the alternator.
A garage should be able to check this for free.