battery / alt woes now ...

[bretttuk]

Ok , more problems arose over the weekend and getting pi55sed with the car already .. problem is as follows..

Car wouldnt start , starter motor ticks over and then dies, car starts when jumper by another car and runs fine on its own, also the dials on the car indicating petrol and temp work fine when stood still.

I begin to then drive the car, seems a little sluggish .... then after a period of time the dials begin to not work and then the stereo didnt work but car drives.

What could this be? would it be an alternator problem or just a battery problem?

how do i go about diagnosing... i can get the RAC out as i am covered, that wouldnt be a problem. thanks.

[Judderi]

Sounds like your alternator isnt supplying any or enough power. I suppose the AA could check it but so could you with a multimeter. Or even whip it off and take it to your local alternator repair shop.

[bretttuk]

What should i be doing with the multimeter then ? and what sort of readings should i be expecting .. no point wasting an RAC visit ..

[Judderi]

Get the car running and put the meter on the live contact of the alternator and the negative on an earth of the car i.e alternator bracket. You should see various readings depending upon the rev speed of the engine. I suppose if you rev the bollocks off it you should get anything above 12v. If you dont get any readings or very low voltage then y alternator needs a re furb.

[Agreeable Slick]

or just take the regulator off the alternator and make sure your bushes are not screwed, also make sure that the springs are not buggered aswell, as this will cause the alternator to take charge back out of the battery when it is sitting there without the engine on.

If they are screwed, which i am pretty certain they will be, a new regulator costs all of £5 ish although there are two types so you will have to either take the old one into a motorfactors, or replace it there and then to make sure.

oh btw, if you multimeter it then on idle there should be 13v of charge going into the battery, under load it should not break about 14.5v.

[bretttuk]

Well sorted out now, my mums partners son car broke and he had it towed to our house ... whilst the AA guy was here he had a look at mine too, the alt belt was a little slack ... so he tightened up and all is ok now .. car is just running ...

Also today , i am fitting some BOSE speakers from a TT which my mate got me for my birthday , they are going in the standard speaker bits so some serious chopping and changing has been done and all looks OE now... shall be finishing up this evening hopefully.

brett