Faulty gauges

[woodywoodwarden]

Every so often the ABS and traction lights come on for a few seconds, follwed by the battery light flickering and then all the gauges go full to the right and then full to the left. Then everything starts behaving normally again.

This has been happening intermittently for the past couple of months. I would expect it to happen every ten minutes or so.

Yesterday it was like the power had been lost from the whole dashboard and everything just went dead for a couple of minutes.

Suspect loose connection but where should I look? Any advice gratefully received.

 

[woodywoodwarden]

hmm

 

[red]

Check your battery voltage first.

 

[yippeekiay]

A gauge sweep usually points towards a kaput battery but it does sound like a dodgy connection somewhere. I'd be inclined to think something might be amiss with the alternator or it's connections as it sounds like it's not giving the battery the charge it needs.

 

[woodywoodwarden]

Thanks for the advice. I started the car in test mode and toggled to the battery power reading. It was at 14 volts It stayed at 14 volts for most of the journey but then suddenly jumped to 17 volts which was when the strange light sequence started explained above. Do you think this is the alternator?