Corsa diesel - brakes & alternator warning lights lit.

A known bastard, the alternator on these.

It's too close to the exhaust on the 1.7s, so it gets cooked.

A bugger to change too, apparently.

Sorry!

-- JackH

The message from Stroller contains these words:

Has the belt fallen off or the pulley come loose?

The two are not related.

Corsa alternator comes with a pump, I recommend you get genuine. Easy to change, just slightly more bolts than average.

Then check out the brakes system, there may be three items that put the light on handbrake, low fluid or low pads, but I don't rem,ember seeing corsas with low pad warning.

mrcheerful

Stroller gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Wotcha, Andy...

What voltage is it chucking out? You should have about 14v at the battery terminals on anything much over fast idle.

As has been mentioned elsewhere - does it have a pad wear warning? It may just be crappy contacts somewhere - might be worth removing the low level warning sensor and cleaning it and it's contacts up.

Perhaps you should... - How's the shoulder doing?

Is the belt intact?

Sorry - I should have said - nothing obviously wrong down that way at all. The belt seems tight enough, and when the engine's running I can see the alternator turning alright.

Stroller.

If the vacuum pump had failed, the brakes wouldn't be 'squishy' but firm and very heavy. Perhaps it uses the same light to indicate worn pads? The driver's handbook should say. Worth getting one if it's missing.

As regards the alternator light, it's worth checking the alternator output. A voltmeter (DVM) across the battery should show roughly 12.5 volts with the engine stopped if the battery is good and charged, then approx 14 volts with the engine running.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com (Stroller) contains these words:

With the engine off, release the vacuum by repeatedly pressing the brake pedal until it goes firm. Now, with your foot firmly on the brake, start the engine. If you feel the brake pedal slowly sink as vacuum is made [1] then it sounds like your pump is fine.

[1] Yeah, yeah, I know. English abhors a vacuum, and trying to speak correctly about it results in really ugly sentences.

Mine, and the combo vans i have driven, not excissive, but not the best i have ever come across, no ammount of fiddling bleeding makes a lot of differnence.

and the

Mine goes out on tick over...

if speed is increased", but quite reasonable revving has no

I had a simmilar thing that whenever i drove over a puddle the batt ligth would come on, no squeeling but the belt must have been slipping it would appear the belt needs to be qute tight.... more so than on most other cars i have come accross.

Also the slide bar thing that the adjuster runs up and down on mine is split itno two halves, i find that to renew the belt i have to withdraw the bolt completley and push the alternater home to the engine, and then pull it back using a lever to the second space on the bar.

See Pics

incidentally, not the chunks out of the fan!

There is some sort of guard/plate at the bottom of the alternater ( held on by the bottom bolt to the alternator) that on my car has a habbit loosening off coming loose leaving the guard to free to flap into the fan, making some interesting noises!

Thats the vacuum pump thingy,

Also note the green connector, which gave me some trouble at first, not sure if it is an optional extra fitted post manufacture or a std thing, but it get getting wet and rusting inside, i got fed up of cleaning it and spayed some water seal goo into it as a last ditch effort before i sorted somthing better out.....50k later it is still fine :D

( no laughing at my repair to the exhaust joint)

Of note is this

Note the cardboard against the radiator,

the coolant hose chafffs against the metal edge of the radiator and eventually spreying coolant over everything, the clips the Vx provide are to be polite poo!

This temp solution (50k ago)seems to work well - its all a bit agrugcultural, but it works!

Full set of pics here

Tom

Lolac motor factors cum exhaust place have offered use of their altrernator- / battery- testing machine. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hmmmn... okies... will have a look at the stoppey bits when I get it up on my Dad's hoist.

Bah! Maybel's brakes are excellent when I choose to use them, thankyouverymuch. It's stiff. The arm, I mean. Now my ribs are more painful, and it laughing is rather painful.

Stroller.

It is unlikely that a vacuum pump fault will cause squishy brakes. A faulty vacuum pump will cause the opposite - a very solid pedal with little actual braking available.

The battery light should go out straight away, or failing that, just above idle speed. The low fluid level lamp illuminates at the same time as the battery light as a check that the bulb is working - it will go out when the battery light goes out unless the fluid is below minimum.

First of all, get the alternator output checked. It should be at least

13.5V at 3000rpm with loads such as heater, heated window and all lights on. With all loads off and engine revs held at around 3000rpm again, make sure that the voltage does not rise much over 14.8V. Overcharging is a common failure on these alternators.

If and when you do replace the alternator, you will probably need to replace the charging lamp relay as well - these go open circuit when the alternator packs in. It is the black relay mounted behind the drivers side kick panel (panel behind the bonnet release lever).

HTH

Anthony Remove eight from email to reply.

Ah! Many thanks for this advice. The pedal's sinking once the engine is started is very distinct.

Although I've been riding motorcycles for years, I'm a fairly new driver, so perhpas I'm making a misjudgement when I say the brakes are spongy. I'll ask my father to have a drive of it & see what he thinks.

Stroller.

The message from Stroller contains these words:

Pump very definitely working then.