Benkapel

Hi Everyone, I have a problem I am finding hard to figure out. My wife who drives the car (100% of the time), is saying the battery light comes on occasionally during the week, and sometimes the headlights flicker briefly. No sluggish starts or idling problems. I started the car and disconnected the battery, immediately the battery open cct voltage dropped to 12.7v, and the alternator charge was 13.8 volts. I left the battery off, cranked the air conditioner, high beams, indicator, car fridge, subwoofer, etc, (I know don't tell me this generally shouldn't be done, but I was slow and gradual)... and not a single glitch. 13.8v exactly. Then I added a 40A load for about 3 minutes (A device I keep on my test bench...adjustable resistive and reactive load device), still 13.8volts. I revved the car, turned everything off, idled it, and played around for about 30 minutes and could not get anything other than 13.8v. With the battery disconnected I wired a meter across the charge and ran the flyleads into the cabin and drove around the block (about 5km). 13.8volts. Now the battery is 5 years old, its a MF50 Supercharge 600CCA 105RC rating, and I know it is well past its date stamp, and when charged at 13.8volts, the open cct voltage should not drop to 12.6 until it has a couple amps load on it for a minute or two... My query is, my understanding of the battery warning light is that there needs to be a potential difference in favour of the battery in order for it to illuminate, as the positive of the LED is to battery +, and the negative to the charge +. So...if I have such a crap battery, that goes to 12.7volts instantly when charge is taken off it, and my alternator just cannot be persuaded to deviate from 13.8v, then how can there be this difference occur, other than a loose connection or something. Do these things even use brushes these days ? If the headlamps are flickering and the battery light comes on, then that certainly makes sense that the charge light comes on as it would be an obvious case of losing charge and relying on a 5 year old crappy battery to drive everything, which certainly would flicker...but I couldnt re-create the problem. I couldn't get this thing to go below 13.8 volts. I can replace the battery, and most likely if it lost charge the good new battery would compensate for that brief moment...but why should it lose charge ? Appreciate the help, if someone has had anything similar. Thanks Ben

It can be done. As I have just done it, but like mentioned before there is considerable re-wiring to be done. I have just made an interface to my steering wheel "mode" switch to switch between DVD and Sattellite Nav on the factory screen. I also wired it so that the screen is ALWAYS dim on sat-nav, and ALWAYS bright on DVD. I can have another look on mine to tell you exactly where and what if you like. its not a 5 minute grounding of a loose illumination wire at the back of the console though. ben

Hey again everyone. Well this is my situation...amps, speakers and subs are fine... I have the latest DVD deck from alpine, the 9965E, and I want to interface it to my factory colour screen. I ALSO want to keep the factory sat-nav working... I have purchased an alpine vehicle hub and also a ford RGB converter cable made by alpine, but my question is...how do I switch between DVD and NAV ? The alpine vehicle hub instructions tell me I need to connect both composite video AND RGB to the screen, but the screen only has one input, so if I convert the composite to RGB using the alpine converter, I now have 2 RGB cables and only one input on the screen ? Theres no installer instructions with this thing. Does anyone have a clue ? Thanks Ben

well after a few attempts to contact the dealer and finally explain to them what the heck im talking about, they did a hunt around and found the remote/map/manual kit and courier'd it to me straight away...turns out its all working fine now. thanks for all your help

Envy - Yes this is where its mounted... And yes its a dvd player not an Amp, it says DVD-ROM on it and I have inserted a disk but I cant eject it. Envy- How do you use the sat nav, is there special buttons to press to activate it, or do you think mine has been removed ? Ben

Hey everyone. Good to be part of the forum, I've just bought my XR6T BF MKII. As I am immediately buying a new sound system for it (as the factory premuim sound is NOT premium at all), I have got alpine PDX amps and MB quart reference speakers...however my issue is with the deck, I dont know whether or not to get a DVD deck with all the alpine converters and hubs, because I accidently found nicely integrated to the back panelling, a DVD player mounted in the boot. which is fully powered up, but it has no eject button, and I have no idea if its hooked up to the colour screen or not, and if it is...how do I access it ? Would the vehicle be fitted with Sat-Nav...or is there an option to get a DVD player installed, or do all XR6T's have a DVD player in the boot just a matter of getting them connected ? If someone could please help that would be great. Look foreward to participating in the many discussions Ben