Battery dash light

[bacon13]

I have searched this forum without a clear answer to my issue.

I will randomly get the battery light on the dash come on in my 03 windstar. When this happens, the headlight will dim and the wipers will move at a slower pace. If I shut off the van and restart, everything goes back to normal. My battery tests good and I have replaced the alternator several years ago.

[northern piper]

well if the battery is an original one I'd think it's suspect. Did you do a load test? Also, despite the fact that the alternator is relatively new it too could be working at less than 100%. Most auto parts stores will do a load test and alternator test for free while and nothing needs to be removed from the van to do the test. I'd be going to wherever you get your part from and ask them. It's likely a bad battery or alternator that's not putting out as much as it should.

[bacon13]

I have read on other forums there are others who have experienced this same phenomena but no solution yet. The light will come on, randomly. Everything electrical will be dim, slow, etc. Turning off the ignition and restarting will make it back to normal. If you ignore it and keep driving, the van will eventually die.

The alternator bench tested normal, the battery also is fine.

There has to be others at this site who have this issue too?

[scubacat]

How old is the battery?

[phil-l]

While I don't have this problem, it strikes me that this could be the behavior of a marginal relay that's failing.

Any further thoughts?

[northern piper]

I'd agree Phil, although I'd first want to have a load test done on the battery and see it's good to at least 700 CCA, no blown cells, etc. before I'd be drilling further into electrical. I'd also be checking all grounds for tightness. I find that these fluky electrical problems often are the simple things, which is fortunate really as they're usually easy to rectify.

To the OP, how old is the battery? Has it had a load test? (fwiw, I replaced a "new" battery - which was only 3 yrs old - because it had some sort of internal fault) I've had similar symptoms to what you describe and it was inevitably battery related.

[scubacat]

Batteries only seem to last about 3 years for me (which is actually super economical with Costco's 36 month guarantee. )