Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Technical questions and answers about the Mazda Bongo

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quiksilver

Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by quiksilver » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:41 pm

I have just fitted a leisure battery and changed over the internal lights, cigarrette lighters, mirrors, radio and windows (fuses 1, 8 and 14). The charging circuit for the L/B uses a normally open relay which is closed when the output form the alternator is live (I have connected the switch feed to the blue/orange wire from the alternator). I now notice that when the engine is running, the alternator light and the sediment lights stay on, although they are very dim. Does anybody have any ideas what is causing this?
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by 321Away » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:51 pm

take off the realy power from the alternator, pull the internal fusebox forward and use the thick blue/white, then see if the lights are coming on dim, if so your alternator is most likely failing

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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by missfixit70 » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:52 pm

Don't know the ins & outs, but thats basically why most of us use voltage sensing relays such as the willinton kit.
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by rossdg » Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:09 pm

I had this happen; it was indeed the alternator failing - it was only delivering 12.1 volts when running with any load.
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by missfixit70 » Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:27 pm

Doing a search from wayback :wink:

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... r&start=15

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... alternator

Seems it was a common problem for the charging light to glow faintly when the charging feed was used to supply the signal for the split charge relay

Here's one of the old posts from veg_ian
Connecting to the low current feed screws up the 'no charge' light feed to the warning light on the dash making it come on all the time. I forget the reasoning now (but it made sense at the time) but I found another article that explained it. I'll repost if it turns up.
So not necessarily a stuffed alternator, may just be you need to rethink your charging wiring :wink:
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by g8dhe » Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:57 pm

The relay is pulling its operating current via the two lamps - hence they glow.
The other way of driving the relay is to pick up the IG2 circuit so that the relays operates when ever the Ignition is ON b ut not during starting itself. The IG2 circuit can be picked up on the back of the fuse box by the drives knee the lower connection to this 10 Amp fuse;
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quiksilver

Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by quiksilver » Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:05 am

All sorted. Thanks for the help.
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by missfixit70 » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:55 pm

Gis a clue then? :wink: It may help someone else in the future :D
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Re: Warning Lights Glowing Faintly

Post by quiksilver » Wed Jul 27, 2011 2:34 pm

I changed the 12V feed to close the relay to the IG2 circuit as suggested by g8dhe.
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