Strange Earth Wire Location - Battery/Aternator/ABS lights -

Hi All, the battery died on my recently aquired 1998 a8 - in the boot have to remove top panel to get to battery and accidently pulled connection from a brown (earth?) wire to the back of the plastic panel.

Charged battery then took for a drive to get a new connector for the above panel. After about 10 mins of stop start driving the 'battery' light on the dash illuminated - i assumed this was warning me of low battery voltage but according to the owners it's alternator warning? Will a low battery throw this warning up or is it likely to be the alernator?

THEN - stop in traffic and the abs warning light would flick on and off everytime i pressed the brake - until it finally stayed on permanently!

Got car back - have reconnected the earth wire and will put on for a decent charge in the morning.

a8 has driven fine until now for past 2 months with no warning lights etc. It has been sat funused for a week hence the flat battery.

So i'm wondering what could be causing ths strange run of bad luck and if there is anything i can do to check what might be causing the problems?

cheers for any help Fraz

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Welcome to the forum, good to have you here.

You can check for a bad earth (symptoms indicate this). Withe the engine running on idle measure voltage across battery terminal + 13.5V or more.

Then on a ramp check from big terminal on alternator to engine +13.5V or more. then check from Alternator terminal to chasis if there is more than .1 V diffeence you have a bad earth on eaither the engine earth cable or chasis earth from battery.

thanks for the reply conan - i put the battery on charge again yesterday and it won't hold charge. Had it charging for 8 hrs and dash lights up but wouldn't start up. Left over night and it's flat as a pancake this morning - not even central lokcing will work!

So i need to get a new battery just to see if it will run - is there any special procedure or precaution when fitting a new battery to the 8? Best Regards Antony

[Conan_the_Librarian]

No special precautions just attach the + positive first and - negative second.

ok thanks again mate - any idea how much a new or reconditioned Alternator wis likely to set me back for a 4.2? Also is the abs light flashing on and off normal when an alternator is on it's way out? Thanks again

[PsYcHe]

Did you fix that wire that you'd pulled on the battery? Just wondering if that may be causing some funny gremlins.

hi yes replaced the small earth wire but haven't got the car running since. So i've got a new battery - when i fit it and try to run the car is it going to knacker my new battery if the alternator is duff?