Charging system problem light on

[The Glademister]

My girl friend's '02 Boxster with Tipronic had the charging system problem light come on yesterday. Ruled out the drive belt with PS and engine cooling working fine. I metered the battery with the car off and on and didn't see significant voltage loss. I'll get my Durametric on Monday so I'll get the code. But until then, what should I suspect as potential problems?

[paulv]

Originally Posted by The Glademister

......... I metered the battery with the car off and on and didn't see significant voltage loss. ......

Key off: battery should be approx 12.6 volts
Engine running: battery should be at least ~13.6 volts at idle (increasing with rpm)

Regards,
paul...

[The Glademister]

Fixed last night. Dead cell in OEM battery. I'll zap the code away Monday.

[Wayne 962]

Batteries typically last about five years (sometimes much longer, sometimes a bit less). If a battery is older than that, I would suspect it as the primary cause of issues like these...

-Wayne

[The Glademister]

Of course nothing could be as easy as replacing the battery...

GF called Friday evening and the '02 Boxster is dead. Hauled ass out with the trailer and got the car loaded up (after several jumps to get the brand new battery charged again). So it's looking like the alternator is suspect. I did meter voltage right after installing the battery and was only seeing 12.3V engine off and less than 13V with the engine running. So yesterday I read the procedure and pulled the alternator. Looks like mice have been building a nest behind the alternator and stuffing it with crap. Not at my house because we bait but probably from a PO. The good news is I found a local shop that will rebuild the alternator for $175


Alternator stuffed with trash.



More garbage on top of block behind the alternator.