Hi all,

 

New to the forums but any help is much appreciated on this one, please.

 

So,out of the blue one morning the car wouldn't start, I blamed the mother in law as she had driven it last and left it reverse and not applied the electric handbrake when turning off the car and left the doors open.

 

We had to jump start the car which wouldn't work initially, the battery was completely dead. Probably rather silly of me, a person I know had one of these massive 'Ring' booster packs. He proceeded to pop over with it and to try and jump start it - wouldn't work. We desperately needed to get the car moving as we have new-born twins, as well as a 2 year old. We then decided to hook the car up to this land drover, as well as the booster pack and jump start it that way, it worked a treat.

 

I took the car for a drive for around 20-30mins down the motorway to give the battery some charge but then a warning light came on the dashboard half way in - Service charging system now. The car seemed fine to drive, except with this light on and over the course of a week, the light would come on and sometimes disappear but one day, when the Mrs was driving the car home, half way through her journey the light came on and (I've not seen the message so apologies if it's completely wrong) it basically said to stop the car immediately and before she had a chance it completely turned off and she lost all power. It ended up staying in a garden centre car park overnight.

 

I managed to jump star the car again and get it home - with the message present from immediately turning the car on. I have had a 'Smart' battery charger on the battery for 6 hours today.

 

I have just taken the battery charger off and it's reading 12.5-12.6v. I can turn the engine on, it's a bit of a stutter but it comes on and I checked the voltage again as I understand it should read anywhere between 13.5-14.5v when the engine is running. The voltage actually drops to around 11.9v.

 

Does this definitely mean that the alternator is bad, or could it be something else, something simple I can fix at home?

 

It's a 2017 Galaxy, 2L diesel with stop/start.

 

Any advice appreciated and apologies for the long winded post.

 

Thanks!

It sounds like you have killed the alternator. It should not have taken both a battery booster pack and a Land Rover to jump start a Galaxy. What points did you connect the booster and Land Rover to on the Galaxy when you jump started it?

 

8 minutes ago, unofix said:

It sounds like you have killed the alternator. It should not have taken both a battery booster pack and a Land Rover to jump start a Galaxy. What points did you connect the booster and Land Rover to on the Galaxy when you jump started it?

 

I thought as much to be honest.

 

Positive to positive and then negative from the booster pack & land rover to an earthing point on the car. Which was a bolt/nut just to the right of the battery. I couldn't find anywhere else suitable, everything else had paint on it and as far as I'm aware, it has to be bare metal?

 

I did initially try a different point but maybe that's why it wasn't jump starting as it looked like bare metal but on second glance, it has some sort of powder coating on it.

 

I've still got the battery on charge now and it's showing just over 13.1v whilst charging.

Battery sounds fine if it is at 13.1V while charging, it should reach up to 13.6V.

Jump starting modern cars can be sometimes a problem with all the electronic devices. It sounds like it was ok but its better if possible to find a nice solid metal earthing point on the engine.

The fault is probably the rectifier pack inside the alternator, they can be damaged sometimes when jump starting. You should be able to get a reconditioned one for about £100 or better still if you can get yours repaired (same price but at least you know how old it is).

 

According to the Smart Charger I was using, the battery was at around half full when I took it off this evening. Roughly been on charge around 10 hours. It's rated at 8amps and with the battery being 75ah I expected it to be charged but maybe it's not able to deliver it's full ampage.

 

I'm going to test it first thing in the morning to see what the condition of the battery is like voltage wise. Hopefully it's still showing 12.5-12.6v like it was earlier and there's no drain on it, otherwise god knows what else could be wrong!

 

Thanks for the info so far!

Hi Deca, well if you test the battery in the morning and you have less than 11.8V it would be fair to assume that you have a faulty cell in the battery.

 

Just spoke to a mechanic who I know of. He told me to remove a cable on the alternator, which controls a signal and dictates how much voltage to send to the battery.

As it was running just under 12v, around 11.8-11.9 with the cable attached, he said to remove it and if it stays the same, then the alternator is knackered and obviously, if the voltage to the battery increases, it's a cable issue.

Just our luck, the voltage did increase, but to 12.04-12..07v.

So looks like an alternator issue. Hopefully it's not too pricey 🙄 having newborn twins costs us enough already, never mind trying to repair the car which we had to buy for them to ferry them about haha.

 

 

Hi Deca, yes it sounds like the alternator has given up. Don't buy a brand new one, you would have to get a mortgage 🤣. You can get a service exchange on line normally for under £100. I've used a place in Leeds before and have had good service. They just post them out to you and you send the broken one back.

 

Hey, just to update. Had a new one fitted for £300 inc Labour. Much more expensive than the £100 you mentioned above I know but at least I’ve got peace of mind and there’s a warranty of some sort with it 👍🏼

Pleased you got it sorted, £100 was for a service exchange unit which comes with a 6 month warranty.

Can charging the battery using a 4a 12v battery charger cause damage result in the same warning. My 2019 Galaxy was having battery issues, heated windscreen not working and a perpetual notice saying stop start is not operating because battery is charging. I attached the battery charger to the positive on the battery and to the screw on the bodywork for the negative. I charged the battery still attached to the car over night and it started up great and the heated windscreen started working, but then in the afternoon I was getting 'charge system service now' warning. I hope it's not my fault and I should of just had the battery changed. 

 

Edit: I forgot to mention the service warning only comes on when at idle and stationary. When I drive it goes away. 

Edited January 17, 20242 yr by Dano78
Additional info

You charged the battery the correct way. 👍

If it is still giving warnings about the charge being low there are a few possibilities:

• The battery needed to be charged for longer - Put the battery back on charge.
• The battery is getting old, or is just failing to hold a charge due to the cold - Replace the battery
• You may have a parasitic current draw, running the battery down. - Pray this is not the case !!
• The alternator may not be charging the battery - Get the alternator tested.

You need to test the battery terminal voltage about 1 hour after you park the car. Use a digital multimeter and have a look at the State Of Charge table below.

Thanks for your reply. *

Oh my god here is an update. So I woke up this morning paranoid about the battery and getting the kids to school so just left the car alone, no pre heating etc, it was -6c. Got them all into the car and started it up, poured water on the windscreen so I could see because I didn't want to put the heater on, and drove the lads to school, it's about a 15min drive. In hindsight I should have just charged the battery last night. Stuff was turning off as we went. Heater, stop start warnings, then the head unit shut down, rear heated rear window didn't even come on. Got to school turned it off. Got back into car and started it again, started up no problem, but nothing was on, dials off, luckily I parked where I didn't need the parking break on, on purpose, drove to my mates garage with no dials, no power steering and just as I turned into his yard she died. It's a miracle it started at the school and it got to his yard so there must have been some sort of charge going into it.Talk about pure luck, because here in Ireland we have narrow bendy roads and I would have been fooked if she gave up earlier. Alternator is dead there is only 6v going into battery. Garage I bought the car off is gonna pay my mechanic to do the job. Mechanic said the battery must be new because there's no way you'd have started it this morning in these temps etc onan old one.