98' Disco battery light on

[joshuagillum]

My battery light on dash came on yesterday and the tach stopped working at the same time. It happened as soon as I started the car up. Had an old battery so went straight to get new battery. Installed new battery and problem persisted. Today when I turned on the headlights they were very dim, the speedometer started fluttering, service engine light started flashing, car started stuttering and stalling and as soon as I turned the headlights off it started running smoothly again. Does this sound like an alternator problem or time to bury the car?

Help! Dealer has already greased me up several times!

 

[joey]

Bad Alt....just bit the bullet and buy a good one (I have heard bad things about Advance/Auto zone Alts on Rovers).

Generally when the light comes on and the tach stops the Alt is bad.

 

[Moose]

This seems like a good time to reprint Sergei's tip on checking alternator strength. While the engine is running unhook the negative battery terminal; if engine keeps running the alternator is fine, if it stops you have problems.

 

[joshuagillum]

Alternator! Thanks guys.

 

[discotec]

OK so im go down hwy 80 and my bat light turned on also tach stoped spedo
started to jump and a all around loss of power
I had the bat load tested to find it bad so I swaped out the bat
I restarted no bat light no tach I turned off all items that would draw
from the charging system the tach jumped back to life and the misfire went away when I returned to the shop I work at I hooked up the vat45
a charging system tester my alt is rated @ 100amp
I was producing about 30 amps @ 2000 rpm well below spec
15 min later the alt was down at a rebuild shop
Kurt