Alternator warning light on BX's

[tlampre]

Hi All, my '85 BX TRS is in at French Connection at the moment getting sorted for the Xmas holidays. Among other things I asked to check is the alternator warning light staying on for 5-10 seconds after I start it. The alternator itself checked out ok so we are are thinking it is normal behaviour.

Can any other BX owners confirm this? Thanks.

Trevor

 

[ARCHRIVAL]

BX alt light

My 16v has had a tell tale dim alt light on ever since I've owned it (5yrs)and the battery is always fully charged !:crazy:

 

[Alan S]

I'd suspect it's just your voltage regulator being a bit slow to kick in; no worries.


Alan S

 

[tlampre]

Ok, thanks, sounds good. On the subject of warning lights, I think a few globes have blown. How hard are they to get at? The Haynes manual is too generic to cover such details. I have the 'space-age' dash, as some magazines have called it. The one with the bathroom-scales-speedo is how I describe it.

 

[ajpolden]

Ok, thanks, sounds good. On the subject of warning lights, I think a few globes have blown. How hard are they to get at? The Haynes manual is too generic to cover such details. I have the 'space-age' dash, as some magazines have called it. The one with the bathroom-scales-speedo is how I describe it.

Hey mate

I also have a mk1 instrument panel on my car, although it appears different because the instruments are a bit more conventional (read round). When I bought it, there were quite a few bulbs blown, making it difficult indeed to see most things when vriving at night. To get at the bulbs, you need to remove the panel - the whole unit will come out. Be careful though, as it will most likely be very brittle from UV damage.
Process is as follows (i've done it a few times!):
1) Lift the lid on it, there should be 2 bolts holding the unit in (10mm i think)
2) Either side of the bonnet release there will be two holes, with similar bolts directly above them, unscrew these.
3) The should be two phillips head crews holding the steering shroud onto the column, with some sort of "cap" immediately in front of the instrument binnacle, remove these.
4) Pull it forward a bit, and remove all plugs from the back of the unit, taking careful note of which one goes where, or you'll end up with door open indicators flashing with your turn signals or something stupid!
5) Pull out the speedo cable gently, this one is a bit tricky.
6) Detach any other wiring, such as choke cable warning light, this would run directly from the warning light to the choke switch mechanism.
7) Remove the unit gently, and remove the little black bulb holders from the back of the unit. (do these steps one at a time)
8) You'll need to remove the globes from the holders. They are a usual 1.2w blade bulbs for instrument lighting, buy them from most servos/parts shops. They maybe difficult to see whether they are blown though, best to test them.
9) Re-fitting is haynes manual style, reverse order. Putting the bolts from underneath the unit back in might be hard, you may want to undo the steering column shroud and pull it down a bit.

Hope that helps, just ask if it's not very clear.

Andrew

 

[Alan S]

Ok, thanks, sounds good. On the subject of warning lights, I think a few globes have blown. How hard are they to get at? The Haynes manual is too generic to cover such details. I have the 'space-age' dash, as some magazines have called it. The one with the bathroom-scales-speedo is how I describe it.

Commonly referred to as the "Leggo Dash"


Alan S

 

[JoBo]

My 16v has had a tell tale dim alt light on ever since I've owned it (5yrs)and the battery is always fully charged !:crazy:

My daughters little Suzuki's battery warning light is on all the time with no other problem.
I think it is a bad earth and one of the solutions is to run a new wire, but can't be bothered.

 

[tlampre]

Thanks for the instructions, they should be enough to get me in there. I won't get the car back this weekend, FC are taking their time and making sure everything is ship-shape. I'm very pleased with the way they approach their work. I'll be doing at least 2 return trips from Melbourne to Adelaide so I don't want any more suprises like my broken belt at Horsham. I'll have the kids with me too this time, so it's doubly important not to break down.

I'll be tinkering with the dash and other cosmetic stuff over the holidays. I'm a bit of self-serve wreckers junky, spent hours wandering around U-Pullit in Adelaide. I haven't had a chance to check out Pick-a-Part here yet. Are there any good wreckers here in Melbourne for getting Citroen parts? I might try and track down a metric instrument cluster and replace it while I do the globes if I know where to look and it doesn't cost too much.

 

[Alan S]

I'll be tinkering with the dash and other cosmetic stuff over the holidays. I'm a bit of self-serve wreckers junky, spent hours wandering around U-Pullit in Adelaide. I haven't had a chance to check out Pick-a-Part here yet. Are there any good wreckers here in Melbourne for getting Citroen parts? I might try and track down a metric instrument cluster and replace it while I do the globes if I know where to look and it doesn't cost too much.

Try Martin Bray in Clarendon in SA as I think you'll find he's possibly got the best collection of Trs bits in Australia. We seem to get bits there when nobody else can source them.
BTW, they tell me it's a culture shock the thorough way Dave and his brother set about sorting a French car out particularly if you've dealt with cowboys in the past. Nice to see you're impressed with them.:wink2:


Alan S