VW BEETLE CHARGING CONFUSION
Q
I am hoping you will have an answer to a problem that is confusing me. Last year whilst driving my 1973 VW Beetle back from a meeting, the battery charging light came on and stayed on for part of the journey. I then accelerated on an open stretch of road and the light went off, and stayed off.
Checking the battery when I got home, all was well and the battery was fully charged, so I dismissed the problem. But returning home from another meeting later in the year, I needed to use the lights and the battery warning light again came on. The lights began to dim, and I needed to pull off the road. At this point I discovered that the battery was completely drained and I needed the recovery service to get me home.
Charging the battery up at home, I booked my Beetle in with the local specialist during the next week. When I arrived, they informed me the battery was charging and all was well, but suggested that the regulator was suspect and so replaced it for me. All was well for a few weeks, after which the light again came on during a short journey. After various different driving scenarios, I have discovered that if I start off in reverse the light will go out and the battery will charge, but if I drive off in first gear I can expect problems. Any clues?
Wilson Burnage
AI would not suspect from such symptoms that the new regulator or the generator is at fault, and would be looking at some point for a poor connection either in the form of a corroded terminal or broken wire. The nature of the fault suggests that the slight movement in the engine as the drive is taken up in reverse is sufficient to move either the earth strap or one of the wires in the loom and allow the contact to be made, whilst if driving off in a forward gear, the slight moment of the engine is achieving the opposite and breaking the circuit at some point.
As the regulator has been recently changed and as the symptoms were there before its replacement, I would not suspect the problem to be in this area, but I would carefully check the connections to the generator and the state of the loom as well as the earth strap. If nothing is found, I would then start by fitting another earth strap between the engine and the body, but I suspect that on close inspection of the loom, something will come to light.