Hi guys over the past few days my Ralliart has developed an electrical problem it starts off with the Antilock light coming up on the dash, followed by the SRS, then handbrake lights and then moments later the gauges start waving at me, the first time it did this it stopped just as I pulled into my driveway and the car ran fine the next two times I used it but they were only 5 min drives where the other time was over 15mins.
Tonight when I got just around the corner from home it started doing it again and the headlights went very dim and started to idle rough with anything requiring power sturggling to work. Once in the driveway and I shut it down and that was it she wouldn't start again but all lights working fine.
We suspect its the battery but are worried it might be something more.
Has anyone else experienced something like this before in any model Magna?
Even suggestions on what it could be?

Cheers,

Nathan.

PS the battery is a century and is at least four years I found out after pulling it out and finding a purchase date on the side.

Also the Radio cuts out when indicators are turned on.

Battery may be the start of the issue but I would also think Alternator may be the main issue here

Battery went in this morning and it started and used a multimeter to check it's charging which it is.
Battery charge light still not working and I pulled it out and the globe is ok after swapping it with the others.
But we do think the battery is the start and will be replaced this arvo.
So don't know why the battery charge light isn't working.

What do you mean the charge light is not working? Do you mean with the key in ON but engine not running the charge light isn't coming on?

Battery may have solved it, but if it continues playing up then is definitely alternator related to me... Perhaps the diode pack in the regulator is failing when hot but okay when cold.

Perhaps take it for a long drive >30 mins with all the lights and aircon on to get everything under the bonnet nice and warm and then check the voltage at the battery at about 1500-2000rpm. Should be 14V+, and then turn car off ... Should be 13V or less.

Yeah when I turn the key on without the engine running it isn't lighting up.
It's doing after about 15mins of straight running approx from what I've worked out so far, my mate has suspected the voltage regulator, if not the battery.

Just got told there is no power going through to the battery charge light, any ideas?

So we put the new battery in yesterday evening and that settled it down abit and he have come to the conclusion the voltage regulator is the problem after a drive and the headlights were dimming and then getting brighter again and also we played with the plug and got the battery charge light to work so that is also caused by the voltage regulator. So I'm about to go and buy a new one, I will have to get the alternator worked on in the near future tho.
We also pulled the master cylinder for the clutch out while working on it and cleaned it out and readjusted it and that is much better and did the clutch fluid which we found to be filled with abit of gunk and contaminated with water.

Well good news the voltage regulator has been replaced and all is working as it should and the battery charge light is lighting up again before the car is started.

Glad to hear all is good again.
Just a quick note, if this re-occurs try to rectify it as early as possible, avoid driving the car as much as you can as voltage regulator failure can potentially be very costly.
Especially as you said the gauges going crazy that is an indicator of higher current and it can fry electrical components.
Sounds like you got to it just in time!

Just to add something:
The charge indicator light is usually part of the electrical system which supplies the initial field current for the alternator to get it started. Without this initial current, the alternator will not generate any output current. The alternator has two sets of diode rectifiers inside it; one set is to charge the battery, but the other set is to provide a supply voltage for the controller. When this secondary circuit produces its version of 12 volts, the charge indicator lamp then has 12 volts applied to each pin; so it goes out.
These sort of faults take time to sort because the battery gradually runs down. It is usually the case that when there is an alternator problem, the dash board lamps will dim when the headlights are switched on. As well,when the car is idling, if the alternator is NOT charging, when the lights are turned on, the engine speed will not change (slow down).