yellow dash bulb with X == alternator death??

[rustyold440]

They come in 3's dont they.....

1) my rad fan switch appearing to not be switching the fan on
2) massive crack that appeared all the way across the windscreen from a stone chip.

and now.... number 3

The yellow X / lightbulb (assume = charge circuit warning) has always stayed on for a couple of minuites of driving before going out ever since I brought the 440. Now it doesn't go out at all.

My trusty voltmeter reads no rise in voltage at the battery (or from the +ve of the alternator to chassis) when I blip the accelerator, and the headlights don't brighten.

Does this sound like alternator U/S?? Is the charge light supposed go out straight away when the engine revs? Is there anything else I can do to check the alternator.?

Am I just unlucky, or is this the sort of problems that should be expected of a 10 year old Volvo? its starting to remind me of a certain Series 2 Landrover I used to have... more time spent replacing bits than driving it! I'm reluctant to scrap, but the mounting bills are making me consider it. If it wasn't for what I've already spent

[Clan]

the orange X is the bulb fail light! it stays on until you press the stop lamps if all is well , but as it now stays on it means you probably have a blown stop light !

What voltage are you getting at the battery? Over 13.8v is good , You have an alternator not a Dynamo so it should be stable when you rev the engine not go up noticably .

what makes you think the rad fan switch isnt working ? Is teh temp gauge rising too high in traffic? It will hardly come on at all at this time of year ..

any car can suffer from a cracked winscreen old or new , so it seems the most you have wrong is a stop lamp bulb out ...

[rustyold440]

Aha.... that makes sense and sound a lot lot cheaper. Pardon me assuming the worst! I don't get a manual as you can probably tell.

Stop lamp is very very likely as my rear NS cluster is a bit wobbly with a broken clip (always been like it). I've had my mountain bike in there today - after that it went wrong so I've probably jimmied a bulb or wire loose with the bike. Good, that will take care of that.

Getting Autoglass to sort the screen Thursday, again that is sorted... £60 excess. Kerchinng.

Regarding my temp problem, the car overheated this morning. Or did it? I'm reading now by search that sometimes the temperature guage occasionally lies just to check you are awake, can be due to cracked PCBs in the dash, or damaged wires from the rear of the engine to the bulkhead

Anoyingly I'm not sure now if I can trust the temperature guage or not. My drive to work is foot to the floor on open roads, and I need to be driving 55-60 MPH. I don't know If it will "overheat" again, as it didn't overheat on a 25 mile test run earlier. Unless I have/had some air in the system somewhere after putting the rad back on.

Guess I'm just going to have to try and see what happens.

[rustyold440]

Temperature has read stable for 90 miles today. Maybe I had an air lock which has dispersed. Marvelous - all is well.