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Alternator or Voltage Regulator?
I installed a nice volt meter on my Pcar to tell me the voltage story while I drive and am not really sure what story I am seeing.
When I start the car at night and drive with the lights on, ac and fan, plus wipers, I get about 12.25 volts. Turn off wipers, 12.4 V, turn off AC 12.6 V, turn off lights 13.4V. During the day, when I start, I get 13.8v right away and it starts to decline from there and eventually goes down to 13.0V. when the car is warm. Is it the diodes on the alternator failing under heat, voltage regulator bad, or alternator just not able to put out enough juice? Yea, I know, replacing the alternator solves all of these problems but I like to know what I am seeing. Or all of the above.
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DonMo 1984 911 Carrera Targa 3.2 liter, SSI's, Dansk 2 to 1, Steve Wong Chip Columbia, SC "Go Hokies" |
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10-06-2007, 05:55 AM
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Redmond, Wa
Posts: 192
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Not sure if this helps but I just finished replacing my alternator due to what I believe to be diode failure where my alternator would continue to feed power after ignition was turned off causing the motor to continue running. With motor warm and no accessories running I was 13.2-13.6 at idle measuring at the battery with a good voltmeter.
I took this as a normal reading according to the Bentley manual I believe was 13.4 or so with the motor at 2000 rpm.
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'89 Carrera Cabrio '01 Audi A6 2.7t '01 BMW 540i '06 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel |
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10-07-2007, 03:15 PM
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1984 Porsche Targa 3.2
