Battery light, ABS light, and fuel light on at startup....why??

[Diesel Dawg!]

The red battery light, the yellow light just to the right of it (circle with some marks on either side of it, ABS light I think) and the yellow triangle to the left of the fuel gauge all light up while starting the engine and they remain lit after the engine is running. They go away as soon as you rev the engine up to 100-1200rpm or so and they NEVER come back until the next time you start the engine. No battery or any other problems. Any ideas?

[andrewjtx]

That yellow light is for the brakes. ABS is a separate indicator I believe. But this is normal startup behavior. Tests the lamps. Otherwise, you'll never know that the bulbs are blown out until you have a problem.

[whunter]

Check the alternator voltage before raising RPM, minimum = 13.5v, average should be 14.5v.







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[katja]

My parents' 1980 Peugeot 505 diesel did the same thing when brand new, for a long time....the charge & oil pressure lights would stay lit for several seconds to as long as a two minutes after a cold start. Dealership never noted anything was wrong. Several years and a battery later, we ultimately found the alternator was bad...a new alternator cured the problem.

[babymog]

The alternator is not being excited/charging until you raise RPMs. Not normal.

[andrewjtx]

Yeah, I misread the OP. Thought they were just going off right after the crank.

Smarter folks than me have chimed in. Break out your multimeter.

[mach0415]

whunter and babymog are right on with this. The alternator is not being "excited" to energize the stator and regulator. Adequate electricity in = electricity out. When you rev it, it is able to kick it over to produce charging voltage. The lights come on due to the fact that voltage is too low to run the systems (simplistically put). I will guarantee you that your belt(s) is/are slipping or output at idle is lower than spec, or overall output even above idle is lower than spec. Check for corrosion at wiring connector and battery too. Brother Ohm had it all figured out with low voltage due to high resistance.

[hey_allen]

My car was doing similar things when one of the diodes in the alternator decided to call it a day.
It showed proper charging voltage, but hooking it up to a tester failed immediately, and putting an oscilloscope to it showed a drop out in the wave form rather than an even pattern.

If you don't find something on the easy route of testing voltages at idle and at 1800 or so, I'd get it to an auto shop that has a tester to take a look at it.