Power drain

[Proman]

well i been havin a problem with battery drain the last month, im still not sure whats draining it, my question is would the battery light come on if the alternator has a bad voltage regulator? because ive "never" seen the battery light come on when the cars running, so im thinkin the alternator is fine but maybe a bad regulator or a short somewhere???

[bloodyricho]

check and clean the terminals on your battery leads. probly pay to change the battery terminals they give problems.

[Brett_jjj]

Check the boot and glovebox light switches to make sure they are turning off the light when the lid is shut.

[WhiteOx]

my question is would the battery light come on if the alternator has a bad voltage regulator?

Yes, the light would come on.

[hako]

Aftermarket immobilisers can fail and cause a power drain if you've got one fitted. Another thing to check is whether the head unit and amp if fitted are wired correctly to an ignition circuit otherwise they are always on. If the battery is more than 2 or 3 years old then it could simply be old age.

[Proman]

Yeah was the head unit hako, thanks

i bought a test light this morning hooked the clip to the negative battery lead and put the rod to the negative terminal and it lit up fairly bright, so started pulling fuses, sure enough it was the central locking/ Radio fuse doing it, put the fuse back in, disconected the stereo, so i eliminated it being the central locking.... tested with the test light again and doesn't light up now, so who ever had the car before has done some dodgy stereo wiring.
now the car has enough power to crank, i still wouldnt mind changing the regulator as it only has about 3mm of the brushes left

[hako]

You can buy just the brushes and solder them to the regulator...costs just a few dollars.

[Brett_jjj]

Yeah was the head unit hako, thanks

i bought a test light this morning hooked the clip to the negative battery lead and put the rod to the negative terminal and it lit up fairly bright, so started pulling fuses, sure enough it was the central locking/ Radio fuse doing it, put the fuse back in, disconected the stereo, so i eliminated it being the central locking.... tested with the test light again and doesn't light up now, so who ever had the car before has done some dodgy stereo wiring.
now the car has enough power to crank, i still wouldnt mind changing the regulator as it only has about 3mm of the brushes left

Dont some head units use some power (even with the ignition turned off) to keep the radio pre set stations stored,and to run a digital clock if they have one?If so, these would take a long time to run the battery down, wouldnt they?

[Proman]

im just going by the test light, there was some some sort of drain something to do with wrong wiring, disconnected the head unit and now she holds charge i dunno its wierd

[[p]wrr-247]

check the wire at the back of alternator to if that goes while ur a distance from home dont expect to make it home unless some1 swaps batteries with you and followes you home and swap batteries back like 1 very nice stranger did on the great western highway

[Proman]

well that was nice of them to do that, yeah i've redone the wire at the back of the alternator, and cut the battery wires back a bit and redone the clamps as well, cheers

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

In answer to the OP's would the battery light come on if the alternator has a bad voltage regulator?, the answer is yes given if either/both regulator or brushes are on the way out. I speak from experience, limping the car to service with a worn out brush set. I could start the car (3.8L GM V6/1993 vintage), but the battery warning light would come on and periodically extinguish, then return and stay on. I found this very annoying (I was on the perimeter of entering the outback beyond Broken Hill at the time) and making for quite a lot of angst. Phoned home from Wilcannia and a friend communicated with his mechanic: "get a lump of rock and gently tap-tap-tap on the top of the alternator casing". I did this, and found surprisingly I then observed the battery light would go out and stay out for some time. Upon returning to Broken Hill, a techie confirmed it was the brush set and whipped it out and put a new one in: problem fixed! So maybe the regulator on the back is a place to start as a suspect part.

[The1]

it says the light in the holden manual means the charging system isn't working, obviously it would just turn on once under a set voltage limit, prob 11volt or so i would think.