Q: Alternator not grounding on 2000 BMW 323Ci

asked by on August 19, 2016

My alternator light flashed up on my dashboard repeatedly and then stayed on. My car was in an accident on the passenger side. So I removed the broken headlight. I installed a new alternator and charged the battery. But my battery light flashed up on the dashboard. It wouldn't charge. So I took out the alternator and had it checked and it’s OK. They said maybe that it was a grounding problem. Do you know what might be the problem and how can I fix this?

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Hello. If this occurred right after the accident, then I would check the ground connections on the battery first. If they are fine, then the wire going from the battery to the alternator needs to have a voltage drop test done on it. Most of the time this wire fails and causes this. If that is fine and the battery is also fine, then many times this is caused by the wrong battery being programmed into the computer or a computer failure. To have this checked, a certified technician from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to diagnose the charging system in order to have this properly corrected.

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