electrical question - 95 Geo Metro lsi

[elionwyr]

The Geo started fine this morning. Running lights were working. (I think this is the correct term - driving lights?)

It was still dark, so I turned on the full headlights, and I had a cigarette-lighter-powered heater plugged in (which is my short term fix for my broken blower motor).

Halfway to work (15 mins of driving), the battery light comes on.

I turn the headlights off and on. They're fine, but the driving lights are no longer on. Turned the heater off just in case. Turn signals, dashboard lights, radio - all ok.

I may have smelled something funky electrically right before I noticed the battery light was on and the driving lights light was off.

Tried to check fuses during lunch, and the obvious ones all seem fine. There was some blue corrosion powder crap around the positive lead on the battery, so I cleaned that off.

But would the battery light come on for a blown fuse in the engine block?
(There are two sets of fuses inside the engine. One has a mix of typical 15-20-30's where you can look and see if the fuse is blown, and a set of fuses next to the battery - sorta right under the negative lead - that are block-y looking and have 4 plugs, for the most part - I see some that are marked as being for lights but I have no idea how to tell if they're bad and they're not explained in my Haynes manual.)

The car feels like it's dragging a little, but it starts up just fine.

Any ideas?

Car had a tune-up in October. New wires, new spark plugs.

[Akira13126]

Did the lights dim at all when the batt light came on?? It's possible that the alt. went. I had the same thing happen to me.

[geozukigti]

Ahh, you have the famous "high draw" melting issue. If you un-screw the fuse block and take a look at it, the wire coming from the alternator going into the bottom of the block is probably melted to all hell. It's not too un-common with people who run sound systems and such. My fix was to take that wire, and hook it directly to the battery terminal. It bypasses the fuse. I've been doing it for years, and never had a problem. Even my newest one has that done. I ran an 8ga amp wire from the alternator to the battery. Your battery isn't charging, that's why your car feels sluggish. The computer isn't getting the voltage it needs to operate properly.