Ignition light flickering when lights on

Just a quick one.....off to Brighton Breeze in the morning......

The ignition dash light is faintly flickering when the engine is running. Only happens when head lights are on or when I indicate.

Checked the fan belt and seems ok, no obvious loose wires either.

Any thoughts? Is the alternator on the way out?

Cheers.

 

Thanks mate will check that in the morning. Yes I've got an alternator rather than a dynamo.

 

I had this and it turned out to be a loose wire from the alternator to the battery. AND completely knackered alternator brushes. It caused one visit by the Big Yellow Van but a jump start got it going.

As the alternator wasnt charging the batteries very well , the usual trick of jump starting the engine off the leisure battery also did not work.

In the end, the warning light wouldnt go out until the engine had run for a minute or so or you stomped on the accelerator. I did check the alternator was still turning the first time this happened.

You can check the brushes on a standard 55A alternator by undoing the three screws around the ternminals that connect to the regulator. Be prepared for black dirty carbon dust, and if you have an oil leak expect printers ink in the alternator....

 

Check your battery connections. Always worth putting a smear of Vaseline on the battery posts too. My money is on loose +

 

As been said clean and tighten all the cornections
If it's only just on I would not worry loads of life left

 

tired alternator....if connections are good and it's still flickering....or a loose pulley belt

 

Thanks for the replies.

Checked all the connections seemed ok, but tightened them up, fine all day today to and from Brighton breeze - no flickering ignition light at all, either with the lights on or off. fingers crossed!

 

I think this is an inherent fault of the vans, tbh. Mine does the same, although everything's pretty much in order.

Worth making sure your charging voltage is ok and giving all of the heavy-duty wiring between alt and battery a good cleanup.

But...I think the cause is the long runs of ageing wiring from the rear to the front of the van. The alternator light is driven in see-saw fashion: one leg is taken (effectively) from the battery +ve via the fusebox, switched by the ignition. The other leg is driven from dedicated diodes within the alternator pack. Any difference in voltage between the two will cause the alt light to glow, brightly (normal case with ignition on but no alt output) or dimly in the case of glowy-alt-light-syndrome. If there's any voltage drop in the +12V feed to the fusebox - this'll be worse if the headlights, indicators or wipers are drawing a lot of current - the voltage on one leg is going to drop, the result being that the alt light glows or throbs according to load.

I bet if you ran clean wiring from the battery and lamp output on the alt, the problem would vanish.

End of thesis

 

Wow thanks Snotty - that's so helpful (and reassuring!). Think I'll give the whole system a bit of a clean up over the winter when I take the engine and gearbox out.

Thanks again.

 

This happens on mine too. Gene light Glows faintly when the lights are on & flickers accordingly in conjunction with the indicators. Only happens when the lights are on though. I put it down to a dodgy earth at the back of the switch. Hmmm, something else to think about I suppose.

 

It's the long wiring to the alt light, mate. No other vehicle has a good fifteen feet of wire to a light bulb on the dash.