So I went to the car wash the other day and I started to have electrical problems. When the water hit it my engine started to smoke by the battery. My battery gauge would drop almost to 0 and my power steering would go out. It also happened on the way home when I hit a puddle. It splashed up and my battery gauge dropped.
Any Suggestions?

 

Sounds like your alternator is getting a mouthful of water. Might check in that vicinity.

 

Or the belt got soapy water on it and started slipping on the alternator pulley. A missing dust or splash shield would make this more likely.

 

Can't see your year.

My alternator is high up, but then I realised in your LHD it's where my AC compressor sits iirc.

Even if the alt would be 'out' temporarily, it shouldn't drop the bath gauge to zero though?
..as far as I know the alt does not directly relate to the voltage displayed on the gauge..As in: you would still have RC backup if your battery would be up to scratch and your alternator went out. In that case you would have batt voltage showing without the alternator contributing anything.

 

The bottom of the dash guage isn't zero. Closer to 8-9 volts I think, which you could see if the alternator pulley started slipping.

 

Yeah I know it's not zero (referred to OPs term) But even f you'd take the alt completely out of the equation you should still see batt voltage.

 

Could the smoke have been burning rubber? Whilst cold and damp, I often get no power steering, alternator or fan. When I looked at the belt while it happened it turned out the belt just wasn't spinning and was slipping on the crank pulley (harmonic balancer). Having a RHD I have an automatic belt tensioner so considering the belt is relatively new, I suspect it's not as tight as it should be. A quick rev for a few seconds normally gets it all spinning again. Puddles also cause this in some situations but my skid pan mostly prevents this since fitted.

As already said by now but I'm going to say it again, the needle does drop when this happens but it's pointing at around 9-10v or so, not completely flatlined.