Hi I just bought my second Ka !.3 an 02 model and its been running fine for weeks but last week I went out in the morning and the ignition lights came on but it wouldn't start. The next day it wouldn't even do that. I took the battery out of my other Ka (thats waiting to be scrapped) and it got me to work. The next day I went out and the battery was dead again. There battery light goes off once the car is running so I had no reason to think the alternator was kaput. Today I put a fully charged battery into it to drive over to see my kids and it drives ok but theres something slowing down the engine and a whining coming from under the bonnet that wasnt there before.

My old next door neighbour runs his own home garage and he tested the battery and its good then the alternator and its putting out a strong charge. The meter also has a function to tell if the alternator is faulty somehow and it said it was. I drove it home and went to disconnect the battery to save it being drained again and the battery was very hot and hissing.

Could the alternator be charging all the time and if so what would cause it ? I also read somewhere that theres a wire that goes from the alternator to the ECU and that sometimes breaks and causes problems. Any ideas ?

Cheers

Sounds like the Ford Smart Charge system has failed and is cooking the battery. This is linked to the Engine Management System.

I did read somewhere that there was a common fault where the blue/grey/ white wires corrode and cause this problem. Not sure if these wires go to the battery or are attached to the alternator, but Ford apparently have a repair kit for it.

Thanks I also read that and was thinking maybe the alternator is running full on all the time but that doesn't explaing the power drain when its switched off. I was hopeing somebody on here had the same issue at one time or another and knew the cure. Cheers