Intermittent Battery Light on hard accelleration

[BasilFawlty]

Hi All
I have a Australian spec 93 Corolla. When I first had it it would run for a while (20 min drive) without issue. Then the battery light would flicker and come on, the radio would die, the heater fan would increase and the headlights would dim, and there was a slight, but noticable, reduction in power. The problem got worse over a period of a couple of months, with the light flickering and coming on more frequently. I read on this forum to clean the battery terminals - which I did. This almost solved the problem - the battery light flickering still happens but not as much - the radio still dies and the engine loses a tiny bit of power, and the problem seems to happen when I accelerate quite hard.
The battery appears to be in good condition, and the alternator seems to be charging the battery.

Any help, suggestions, etc would be much appreciated.

[MR2Jedi]

Check the tension of your alternator belt.

[BasilFawlty]

Alternator belt seems good and taught.

[Bitter]

connections at alt good?

manual or auto? do you have a tach?

[BasilFawlty]

Connections good both ends. Car is auto, and I do have a tach.

[CJCride]

Belt maybe glazed=slipping.
My bet, change the alt. belt & clean the pulley face.

[speedy25]

Originally Posted by BasilFawlty

The battery appears to be in good condition, and the alternator seems to be charging the battery.

Battery may be in good condition since it passes the starting the car test. BUT your other descriptions of the radio "dying" and the engine loses power point to a bad battery.

The typical solution to the light coming on like you describe is tightening the belt and you replied tension is good, so all thats left is a bad alternator. You may or may not have it check out bad on a bench test.

Soooo it may be either or both.

-SP

[BasilFawlty]

Many thanks folks. Got somewhere to start now.

[a3on75]

take your battery to a shop and have them perform a load test if it drops past 9.6 volts the battery is junk. if it passes it is most likely your alternator. Grab a denso alternator since it is the nicer of the the two types and much more reliable.

[1jzdreamer]

Could be a bad/intermittent connection internally in the battery between cells. That would cause erratically behavior as the alternator would keep the car running as its charging constantly.
Using a meter may not point to the problem, you should load test the battery properly or let a autozone (most parts stores have them) test it.

[gold94corolla]

It's telling you to stop driving so fast and save gas