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General Information => General => Topic started by: Smokey Eddy on October 18, 2010, 11:50:00 pm
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My alternator is charging at 13.95 volts quite steadily. Drops down to 13.90 if i rev it up a bit.
That's with everything off but the running headlights.
That to me seems a bit low considering my battery charger charges at 14.8 volts.
Opinions?
I just replaced the starter and I want to get the alternator out of the way - i just want some sort of guess as to how immediately i should replace it.
i have no idea how old it is.
at least 6 years old or 100,000 km
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Normal charging voltage should be 13.85-14. You should be okay. Except in cases of complete failure i would think the amperage will drop off first.
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Seems good to me, replace it when it breaks ;) Btw just had to do some work on the gf's 90.. and it has that self tightening bolts on the top of the alternator.. I immediately remember the pain it gave you when i stripped it trying to tighten it lol :p
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Change it when it breaks, but keep a spare :P, Mine had 419K on it when it decided it was time to end its life as part of my car lol
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That's why it's nice to have car with a Bosch alternator with the replaceable regulator/brushes. 85% of the time it cures a no charge situation.
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That's why it's nice to have car with a Bosch alternator with the replaceable regulator/brushes. 85% of the time it cures a no charge situation.
Are the Motorola generators non-serviceable? I've got a couple sitting around that I might take to a local guy that is very good, and cheap.
In general, anything from 13.5VDC to 15VDC is acceptable output.
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And it's gonna vary with load and temperature as well (not really a precision device)... no reason to be concerned until it can't maintain 13.5V under full load.
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Okay, thanks for the replies guys.
My concern was raised by how furiously my charger would charge the battery after i'd been driving it normally. I have a "smart" charger that will charge anywhere from 2-12amps and it gives out a rough guess as to how full the battery was and it would always say 60% after driving it daily for a week or so.
I recently added a bumpin sound system and my friend standed himself, well... both of us... a couple times in his '87 prelude when he decided Radiohead and Oasis would sound better with 2 10 inch JL's.
I have the same subs as he did but with a higher wattage amp for them.
i have a 1000 4 channel + 1800mono channel and in the winter only i have two 100w hella spot lights on my roof rack that i sometimes use. i have not used all of these at once yet though.
my headlights don't dim with the music which makes me think the alt is still keeping up.