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The Quest for Voltage

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Red1991TSI 
#1 ·
So for the last month and a half I have been battling some unknown electrical problem. Battery shows 12.6v in link when ignition is switched on, alternator relay has been changed, 3 remanufactured (advance) alternators have been on the car and last night I swapped to a Saturn alternator. All of them would show proper voltage on the first start-up after install and I'd be happy. The second time I would start the car the voltage would be lower and then gradually drop down to the bottom of the boost gauge (I have it set to be my "impending stall" or battery gauge). By the third time I start the car the voltage just drops like it is not charging at all and the car will shut off if I do not keep the revs up. The car will start right back up afterwards. The only thing that has not been changed is the battery. Other than the Saturn install the wiring harness is unmolested as far as the charging system is concerned. All of my engine bay grounds are good, clean, and tight. My battery connections are clean and tight, I wired up the alternator correctly.

And to add insult to injury I blew the small cooling hose that runs down from the water pipe near the alternator last night, but that didn't happen until I got home, therefore that is not the root of my problems but rather one more thing to fix.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm thinking the battery may have a bad cell and is refusing the charge. If it's not that then I'm stumped because I've checked everything else I can think of. Before this started happening (no charging unless revs are up) the car would start around 14.1v and then gradually drop down to 13 and stay there, sometimes in as short as a 15 minute drive.

Also, the last remanufactured alternator would randomly cut out voltage while I was driving and would fluctuate (play games with me, making me think it would work properly). There have been a couple times to where it did not charge and the car subsequently shut off in the middle of traffic and wouldn't turn right back over but would on the second try.

That's everything relevant to the problem that I can recall, again any help would be appreciated.

-Nick
 
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