Car Cuts out when juicing the 'lectrics!?

[FAST_aD13]

I noticed this when driving home over the Pennines with the Wipers going, Stereo on and Heater Blasting out.... As soon as i turned the foglights on the engine started cutting out intermitently, like it was missing every couple of seconds. So i turned the fogs off and the problem went away.

To check that it wasn't dodgy foglight wiring i turned the heater off and the fogs back on = no problems. I turned the heater on and it started cutting/missing again!!

I've tried different permiations of this and it still happens, but only when the cars powering several of the on board elctronics.

Further more when i press "up" on both front window switches at the same time it flashes the hazards!.. and if i'm running the heater/wipers etc it also draws enough current to cause the problem stated above.

I've had the battery checked and thats fine.
The ECU's not throwing up any relevant error codes (other then o2 heater matrix sensor, but i can;t see this having anything to do with it).

All i can think is coil pack? Any suggestions?

 

[Dan1587]

Alternator not being able to keep up with all the current draw, maybe just a bad earth or a dodgy alternator.

Put a multimeter on the battery with it running and turn on all your consumers (apart from indicators) one by one and see if the alternator can take the draw.

 

[FAST_aD13]

Could you be alittle more specific about what i could expect to see on the the multimeter?

Voltage/Current drop to zero if its dodgy? (I'm not great with electronics)

Thanks

 

[SkidMarx]

Id be checking from the live terminal on the alternator to the battery earth, this tells you exactly what the alternator is doing.

As said put all your consumers on, u want atleast 13v output from the alternator.

 

[Dan1587]

Id be checking from the live terminal on the alternator to the battery earth, this tells you exactly what the alternator is doing.

As said put all your consumers on, u want atleast 13v output from the alternator.

I'd just put it on the positive and negative on the battery!
But yeah start her up make sure the reading is above 12volts! And also make sure it doesn't go above 15.6volts (I think) as this is the cut off point for the alternator to stop charging!

 

[FAST_aD13]

Will try and pilfer a multimeter tomorrow and give it a test!