HAHA yes my explaination may have left a fair bit to be explained. My amp was pulling as much as my alternator was charging

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Enjoy Chris

I should have said the alternator is not old, it does have an inbuilt reg, and is (apparently) a high output (too high maybe!).

Any way, guess you live and learn, don't bother supporting the local repair guy, who cares about land fill!? and Get a quote first!

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Cool stuff!!

So I have finally replaced the alternator, along with a few other jobs that needed a tidy up, all sorted and running great, no smell, charging fine.
But WTF?! Took it for a quick run (day time) and a guy hoots me, says 'Ya ain't got any brake lights!' (I wish I could copy his accent!)
Any way skulk off home (I was just feeling great, mini back on the road...)to see whats with the brake lights, ends up, I have indicators and .... nada, ZIP, no parkers, no headlights (actually one High beam works) no dash lights.... 'Gee must have popped a fuse', nope every bulb is burnt out, some of them have popped (fun to get out) and the brake light heavy wires in one globe have burnt!
So now I'm up for all new globes as well, oh well good time to get fancy halogen headlights.

I guess at least I did not have a fire, and so far my wiring seems to be ok!

Ps thanks for your advice, don't ignore the smelly hot battery again!

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Cool stuff!!

jeez, you must've had a lot of volts going through there to blow all the globes, would have been over 20v - when mine went, it was doing 18.5v or so and the globes all survived

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

I don't know, the sparky just told me the regulator was F@#!$ed! and he was surprised how bad it was.

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Cool stuff!!

did you notice if the sides of your battery have ballooned out?

that's if it still works, mine was dead soon after - got it replaced under warranty

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?