Ford Focus 1.8 zetec alternator

[ogunnerso]

Hello to all,

I will apologies now for the long story but any help is gratefully received. Last december my car broke down and i called the AA out who told me the alternator was broken so i rung round and found this garage near who could fit me in at a good price so i went there. Now before all this happened the car was spot on, no problems at all and for a 2000 plate it only had 67k FDSH. When i picked the car up that evening everything seemed fine until the next morning for work, i would pull up at a junction in traffic in neutral and the rev counter would climb to 3k, 4k ,5k to point id have to turn engine off and start it back up again so i took it back to garage and explained this never happened before you had it so whats going on. Eventually it stopped doing it, dont know what it was but now when i open door the inside lights are flickering, when i have anything on light head lights they flicker until i put foot on gas or if i put heaters on windscreen everything dims until i touch accellerator, i may only seem a small problem but on a night now even with foot on gas the headlights are dimming then coming back up to power. None of this happened before and have been told its all alternator related but when i go back to garage who fitted it they tell me the alternator is ok. Also i have just found out that when i push brake pedal the sidelights come on at front, that is a earth wire front battery so i have been told. I have looked at alternator and all i can see is the word AUTOELECTRIC 333182.

As i said at beginning, sorry for the long story but this is doing my head in and other than that the car is perfect in everyway.

Thank you

[mintalkin]

you need to get the alternator output voltage checked, put a volt meter on the battery terminals should be around 13.8 volts with all acceessories switched on and the engine on a small rev.

for the side light problem check for a blown brake light, if any damage on the filament it will cause the symptons you have, due to the brake circut voltage tracking back up the sidelightscircut.

[mjt]

for the side light problem check for a blown brake light, if any damage on the filament it will cause the symptons you have, due to the brake circut voltage tracking back up the sidelightscircut.

I think this problem is caused by a broken earth connection on the rear light cluster, not by a blown bulb. What happens is that the power goes through the brake lamp and finds an earth through the rear lights and sidelights.