Ferret
01-06-2009, 07:37 AM
Dang and blast!
After escaping through most of the winter it looks like my alternator's starting to pack in...
Does anyone know what might cause an alternator to start pulsing all the lights in the car at tickover?
My money's on the fact that it got doused in oil a while back when the v8 oil filter housing started leaking badly...
This morning on the way to work I was seeing temperatures of -4C, which is very low for the UK, and under a no load situation of just ticking over the alternator was generating ~13.5V and pulsing the lights.
When the engine was revved it would climb to about the ~14.5V mark, but after a while it would slowly slide back down into the 13s again. I think it's toast.
My plan of attack:
1) Clean the battery terminals up big time
2) Have the battery load tested, just to be sure - it's fairly new but I know my local indy has a high load tester of 3-400A - they'll test it for free.
3) Replace the new looser belt with the old much tighter belt.
4) Pull the alternator off and take it apart, give it and its terminals a good clean and run it for another week, see if the pulsing voltage has gone.
5) Admit defeat and stump £150 for a new 140A alt.
Any thoughts gents?
After escaping through most of the winter it looks like my alternator's starting to pack in...
Does anyone know what might cause an alternator to start pulsing all the lights in the car at tickover?
My money's on the fact that it got doused in oil a while back when the v8 oil filter housing started leaking badly...
This morning on the way to work I was seeing temperatures of -4C, which is very low for the UK, and under a no load situation of just ticking over the alternator was generating ~13.5V and pulsing the lights.
When the engine was revved it would climb to about the ~14.5V mark, but after a while it would slowly slide back down into the 13s again. I think it's toast.
My plan of attack:
1) Clean the battery terminals up big time
2) Have the battery load tested, just to be sure - it's fairly new but I know my local indy has a high load tester of 3-400A - they'll test it for free.
3) Replace the new looser belt with the old much tighter belt.
4) Pull the alternator off and take it apart, give it and its terminals a good clean and run it for another week, see if the pulsing voltage has gone.
5) Admit defeat and stump £150 for a new 140A alt.
Any thoughts gents?