I have a '96 OBW, 2.2L, 5SP MT.

 

My symptoms are: The charge light came on, the brake light came on. I got the car home, charged the battery with an external charger, then started it back up to do some checks with a volt meter. I read 12.0V with the engine running and 12.4V with it turned off. This sure looks like an alternator that is dead, are there any other things that could cause this? I also checked the lugs at the battery, cleaned and tightened, so I am getting reasonably good contact right at the battery.

 

Thanks in advance.

Alternator.

What he said. No need to do any further work, its the Alt. When the alt goes bad, it lights up the brake light, and possibly the alt light. When voltage gets really low it wil light up the ABS (what at this point is called the ABout to Stall light).

 

nipper

What he said. No need to do any further work, its the Alt. When the alt goes bad, it lights up the brake light, and possibly the alt light. When voltage gets really low it wil light up the ABS (what at this point is called the ABout to Stall light).

 

nipper

 

Yeah, my 96 lite up the ABS light when the alternator died. That through me for a loop, but it was in fact just the alternator.

 

Keith

Thanks for all the input. It did turn out to be the alternator.

 

The light sequence was just as described, first I got the charge light and the brake light, then the abs light, then the check engine light.

 

FYI, the Haynes manual has a pretty good write up on checking out the charging system.