Voltage!

[Kevin0323]

Hello Everyone!

I have been reading through some threads on here about voltage and I am a little curious. Sometimes when I get inside of my car the voltage light comes on before starting my car and the needle slowly goes up.

It's almost as if there is a electrical drainage somewhere because the voltage reading will vary depending on how long the car has been sitting. The connections in the back of my hatch are broken but that's all I can think of that could be an issue. I will have to go through and clean all of my grounds and negative battery cable but I was wondering what voltage do you guys normally run when idling and driving? What should it read normally? Typically it's dead middle at 13 on my car.

thanks everyone for all of your help in the past present and future!

[Eldorado]

your battery is probably draining.

with a multimeter on the battery, start pulling fuses until you see any change.

[Razorback1980]

You should also be able to do a search as I've seen what the drain amps should approximately be. Put the amp meter on your battery cable and see what the drain is. Voltage meter at 13 or 14 should be about right.

[bearone2]

it's the alternator light and it should come on when the key is on and goes out as the rpm's increase..
that's how you'd know if the alternator failed while driving, the lite comes on.

if you check it with a decent dvm, the middle will be around 13.5 or so.

[Kevin0323]

Awesome. Thanks guys! That's what I needed to know.

.. Time to buy a freaken multimeter.