It seems there have been several interesting things going on with automobiles recently. Roy told us on the hangout about the starter battery in his Prius being dead. I've got a little mystery of my own, which I hope to get cleared up tomorrow.
Saturday afternoon, I got in the Caravan to go visit the Calvert-Woodley wine store, which is a few miles away on Connecticut Ave in the District. I got about a half mile from home, and the car "binged", the little tone it makes to alert you. I looked at the dash and there was a battery symbol lit up. I didn't want to risk getting stranded, so I turned around and went home.
As it was a pretty nice day, I then spent an hour or so raking the last leaves off the front yard and putting lime down, to slow down the moss growth, instead of wine shopping...... but I digress.
I looked in the Caravan manual and confirmed that the battery symbol indicates a problem with the charging system - either the alternator is dead or the belt driving it has a problem. I called the Dodge dealer nearby and arranged to take it in Monday morning - from there I can walk a couple of blocks and take the Metro train to work.
I put a charger on the battery to top it off, and this morning we decided to drive to yoga -- which is about a mile in each direction. We started off, and the battery light was not on. But about a half mile in, "bing", and the battery light came on. So I figured the problem was confirmed, when a block or two later the ABS light came on too. Hmm.... maybe it isn't the alternator, maybe there's a problem with the signal lights. We drove to the parking garage and on the way to park, the ABS light went off.
After yoga, the car started just fine, and we headed out. No battery light, but "bing", the passenger airbag light came on. We drove on and when we turned the last corner into our neighborhood the battery light came on again.
So I'll take the car out in the morning -- I'm betting there's a problem with the computer, or wiring somewhere in the system.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Fun with Cars
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5 comments:
Your diagnosis seems logical. Hard to imagine all of those systems failing in such quick succession.
Keep us posted please on all the diagonoses, diagnosises, oh drat, all the results! Car and boy...
So..... the car started fine this morning (Monday), but the battery and ABS lights came on as soon as I backed out. Various other indicator lights came on and off on the way over to Georgia. As I approached the beltway, several lights flickered, including the emergency brake light and I thought the car jerked a little. The rest of the trip out to Wheaton was uneventful. I pulled into the dealership and turned off the car. The service guy came out to talk, and then went to move the car out of the front lane. It wouldn't start. He suspects that it is the charging system (or a failed battery) and all the other flickering of lights was from low voltage in the system.
So, it's a good thing the dealer wasn't farther away, or I might not have made it.
That was indeed the problem -- new alternator, and new battery -- required to fix.
Thanks for the update! Interesting that the lights would flicker from low voltage...good to know. Most of my experience with warning lights going on (in different cars) has been due to minor electrical stuff, so I think I have become a bit too blase about their significance. Good thing you weren't!
We had that issue in the Honda a while back. Remember? I'm sure I blogged about it. I think it was spring/summer of 2011.
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