Fairlane Boy

On hot days such as this day today in perth, my car has a hard time turning over to start, and today was no exception. It was the worst its ever been, almost left me stranded.

This dosent happen unless ive had the Ac running.

I took some measurements..

High beams on, radio on, a/c on, and both radiator fans on at full blast. I've got 12.8V at the battery at idle, goes upto around 13.something depending on RPMs as soon as you accelerate.

With nothing on and just idling its got 13.8V at the battery at idle.

Is it most likley time to buy a new battery, this one is a few years old, or is my alternator suspect?

:s2:

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BLWNEB

Yep 13.8v is to low it should be around 14.0-14.5v with nothing on and idleling, check volt drop, and charge rate off alt, it could be alt or battery.

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IF YOU DONT TRY IT YOU WONT KNOW.

Fairlane Boy

"please explain"

How do i check voltage drop and charge rate off the alternator??

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Red-i

It's your alternator. The battery's only for starting. Low out put from your alternator would explain why your battery is starting to play up as it's not being charged enough.

Fairlane Boy

Problem solved.

Replaced crappy factory cabling, from alternator & battery, not using the factory fuse for the alternator either, using a big mofo 100amp circut breaker instead, all cabling is nice fat stuff including that to the engine compartment fuse box. cleaned all contacts and have a stable 14.5V at idle no bloody matter what!

happy days

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TopGhia

We all forget sometimes the resistance in bad cables and connections. Thanks for letting us know.

cheers

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