My car is a 55 plate C3 and on cold, wet mornings the battery light comes, the instrument lights go dim, the headlights go dim and the wipers go slow. Sometimes the airbag and ABS lights also come on. After about 10 mins driving all the warning lights disappear (except the airbag) and everything goes back to normal. Note that it only tends to happen after a short journey the previous trip. If you stop the car and switch off the engine whilst the battery light was on it won't start again. However, sometimes if you leave it a few hours and try it will start?!?!

I've checked the voltage via the cigarette lighter and it goes down to around 12v. Both the battery and the alternator have been checked by a mechanic and they seem to check out fine, but they have only been checked when no fault is showing.

I've seen on this and other forums that people have had similar problems and had alternators and batteries changed and they haven't fixed the issue, so was wondering if there is a known issue with C3's?

Any ideas?

Edited by fantata on 30/01/2012 at 22:11