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Fecking car

967 views 26 replies 11 participants last post by  Jack-Off 
#1 ·
As some of you may have read this week, I had trouble with my Alternator(High voltage).

Anyway i replaced the alterntaor yesterday, with a Recon one form Vauxhall.

i tested the volts on the battery and here they are:

Without engine on 12.7
With engine on 14.4
With all lights fans etc on, whilst engine was running 12.3

With heaters on etc the battery light comes on dim.
Is this right?

I would have thought a reconditioned alternator should be able the cope with the load:confused:
 
#5 ·
The alternator is 70 amp.

The battery is just over 1 year old, The battery is bigger than the factory fitted.
I was hoping the battery had coped with the alternator putting out 18 volts:eek:
Maybe it hasn't.
I'll try my mums battery tomorrow and see if thats any better;)

Fingers crossed:D
 
#7 ·
Will do chap.
other than the earth's on the alternator and battery any others?

I do have one question.
On both Alternators they have the threads for the +, the dash light and -.
The old alternator had the + and dash wire connected.
However the alternator was earthed on the belt adjusting bracket and the - thread wasn't used. Would this make a difference??
 
#8 ·
Not sure exactly for GSi's. But there is usually Battery -> Chassie, Chassie -> Gearbox, Head/Block -> Alt Mounting.

On some alternators there is a -ve like you say, it's often just a bolt directly on the casing. Most vauxhalls just use the adjustment bracket for -ve which is fine.
 
#9 ·
This used to happen to my GSi and i was going to fix it before some drink driver totaled my car and nearly me.. The bat light used to come on very dim on certain times..

Selling a airbox for a astra gsi if anybodys interested

Moz
 
#11 ·
Mine never used to do this until my alternator packed up. Took the battery out as well. When I took it off the car and tried to charge it, the charger just kept tripping out. Round to my mates garage for a new battery, puts it on, it's now a little better but still playing up.:(


Looks like I'm going to have the same saga as you.

I'll be checking the terminals and the belt (again) this week.
 
#13 ·
Right, Today I tried the battery out of a Vectra(same size as originally on my GSi).
I also tried my battery on the Vectra. The battery is fine. I put everything on the Vectra inc air con etc, and it still made 14.05 volts, this was whilst using the battery off my Astra.

I had a look at the earth straps, i'm not overly impressed with them, I cleaned the contacts on the battery to wing earth strap.

I'm gonna try replacing the battery earth cable and the Alternator earth cable.
Anybody got a part no. for these 2? Its on a 93 Astra GSi.

Any other earths i should check/change?

The best I could get out of the alternator with eveything switched on is 13.3 volts. At this point if you turn the indicators on the rev needle goes up and down in tandom with the flash of the indicatorlmao
 
#15 ·
Terry said:
I'm gonna try replacing the battery earth cable and the Alternator earth cable.
Anybody got a part no. for these 2? Its on a 93 Astra GSi.
Don't replace them with the same part! You can get like like some monster fat 60mm2 cable for £5 a meter from a company like Vehicle Wiring Products. Then a couple of ring terminals crimped on the ends.
Try the yellow pages for local wiring specialists or something. The standard vauxhall braided straps are pants.
 
#20 ·
its not the thickness of cable you need but how many strands it has. as current only passes over the out side of a strand the more you have the greater the surface area and thus more current transfered. have you tried just connecting up a low ampage bulb stright from the + terminal to the altanator and then testing it with all the blowers and lights on. think the bulbs about 1.5 or 2 amps. ?
 
#21 ·
buzzoff said:
its not the thickness of cable you need but how many strands it has. as current only passes over the out side of a strand the more you have the greater the surface area and thus more current transfered.
Fraid that isn't true. Not in a car electrics sense.

High frequencies travel through the outer parts of a conductor. We're talking about DC here, ie a frequency of 0.

All these cables i've mentioned are normal multistrand anyway. They are all made up of the same conductor thickness, just the number of conductors is increased.
 
#22 ·
Right, I've changed the earth from Battery to inner wing, And the earth to the alternator. The alternator earth looked pretty bad.

I had the alternator bench tested, Its working perfectly.

And i'm still having the problem:rolleyes:

And other earths for checking?
Is there an earth from the gearbox housing?
 
#24 ·
I'll look at the earth this weekend.

Also isn't the rear heater wired up to the alt charge light? Maybe that is just affcting it. Long shot.
Erm, no idea. I might sound stupid now....But even if this was wired up to the alt charge light, Wouldn't the heater need to be on for the battery light to come on dimly(sp)?

The light comes on when more than one thing is on. e.g. the battery light came on tonight when I had my lights and wipers on.

I have noticed one thing though, Whenever I operate the electric window the battery light comes on quite brighter than normal.
Could this be where the problem lies? Like a dodgy earth in the door, Or is it just becasue the motor draws a lot of power from the battery??
 
#25 ·
I have had this problem with a few calibras, fault is a high resistance in the positive wire from the alternator you will need to run an extra wire from the alternator to the battery.
the light is glowing because the ignition supply voltage to the instrament pannle is lower than the voltage on the charge warning light wire.
 
#26 ·
hmmm interesting.

So, I need to run a wire direct from the positive terminal on the battery straight to the positive on the Alternator?
What size cable should I be using?

So once i've done this that should hopefully cure the problem permanently?
 
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