When starting the vehicle, warning lights, such as the battery, should come on and then go out. If it doesn't, your car will soon let you down
Whenever you start your car, several warning lights come on on the dashboard. One of these alerts is the battery light, which in a normally functioning vehicle should go out quickly after the vehicle is already started. But what happens if that light stays on?
The answer is simple: you have a problem and one of those that cannot be ignored. Although the warning has the shape of the vehicle’s battery, this alert does not necessarily indicate a problem in that part, but in the car’s electrical system in general, so the defect may be in several other parts.
SEE ALSO:
Some of these dash lights are perfectly normal and don’t indicate anything serious. However, there are other lights that you should take more seriously, to the extent that in some cases you need to stop your car immediately.
Among them is the battery light, which usually deceives many drivers who end up thinking that this part is running out of charge or has a defect. However, this is not quite the case, as the problem is actually in the electrical circuit, the belt, the alternator or any of the wires that are connected to the component.
It is common for this light to stay on when the battery is not receiving charge and so it will not last long. This indicates a defect in the alternator, the part responsible for generating current and recharging.
The battery is an energy storage unit, and the alternator works like a power plant. The battery provides the energy that the car needs to start and run, but the alternator is responsible for producing this energy while driving, so the car is not constantly consuming energy from the storage unit.
If the alternator is not working properly and is not constantly recharging the battery, it discharges quickly. When this happens, the car stops due to lack of power, leaving you in the lurch.
Thus, the lack of charge returning to the battery can be caused by:
When the problem is in the alternator, you can drive to the workshop, but this distance cannot be too long. That’s because in most cars, the belt that moves the alternator also makes other items work, such as air conditioning, which you can even do without. But another very important item that depends on the belt is the water pump, an item responsible for cooling the vehicle.
Incredible as it may seem, when the battery light comes on, you may have a serious engine overheating problem, because the belt has stopped making the water pump work. With this, the water will not circulate, the water will boil and the engine may even melt.
