Hicas Light On, Car Stalls, Car Won't Restart

[wilch]

Hi guys,

Having a bit of a problem with my g/f's car at the moment.

When driving the HICAS light will start to flash and flicker, steering will start to feel funny, then eventually the car will die.

When trying to restart the car after this it's as though the car has a flat battery. Won't crank over properly.

I also noticed that if the HICAS light starts flickering, and turns on, all I have to do is drop down a gear and rev the tits out of the engine to get the light to turn off, and the steering to return to normal.

Now, I managed to get the car home, and put a multimeter across the battery. It was showing 11.8V when off, and 11.8V when the engine was started. (this is with the multimeter across the battery terminals. Is this how I should do it?)

The battery is brand new.

Is the alternator dead? Is there somewhere else I should be getting the multimeter reading from? Is there anything else I can check?

Please help. Need to get this fixed asap, but being a saturday it's going to be hard to find a mechanic that can do it today.

[wilch]

Just checked the car... Jump started it, and put a multimeter across the battery.

At idle the voltage remains at 11.8V, but when I rev to 4000rpm the voltage rises to 12.4 or so.

The alternator is dead isn't it?

[sloazr33]

think the meter reading should be (i could be wrong here i'm not an autoelectrican) around 13.8V in other words you have more than 12V going into the battery to keep it charged.

[wilch]

Yeah, it should read 13.8-14 at idle.

Just wondering if there's anything I can really check?

I've checked the belt on the alternator, that appears to be on tightly, and not slipping.

Had a feel around of the wires, they appear to be plugged in.

Anything else I can do?

I really need to fix this today. I guess I should start ringing around to see if I can find a 2nd hand alternator, or a new one.

[wilch]

Also could the fact that the battery is not charging, and the alternator isn't giving enough juice to everything cause the HICAS to play up??

[sloazr33]

yeah i think so, computers do wierd things when they dont get enough juice. you might be able to get yours reconditioned, might only need new brushes, which will cost less than a new 1 if they have the parts.

[wilch]

Appears to be fixed now.

Replaced the alternator, HICAS light doesn't turn on. Car doesn't stall, and the battery's charging

Now to check for where that power steering fluid is going....