georgem

im in liverpool m8, and thanks to everyone who has helped so far.

got a new alternator fitted today, this has solved the idling speed being too high, the charging voltage is now a healthy 14.50 volts across the battery terminals and the car is running perfectly again. the only remaining problem is the airbag light staying on, will this need resetting by a vw dealer

today when the wife took the car out (sharan 1.9 tdi 110 carat 1998) she said that none of the instruments were working on her outward journey (5 miles). when she got back in the car the speedo, rev counter, airbag lights etc were going crazy, flicking on and off etc. when i come home and got in the car all seemed ok apart from the airbag light staying on. on further investigation the car shows no battery light at all, starts up revving at 850 rpm for about 10 seconds, rising to 1050 rpm and idling there. the airbag light stays on. the battery shows 12.25 volts when switched off and then shows 12.11 when the car is running, also when you switch off the alternator sounds like it is still spinning internally for about 10 seconds. i know this points to alternator failure, but my question is, would this account for the airbag light staying on, and why is there no battery light at all, wouldn't it light up if it wasn't charging? thanks george