G-RELL
FULLY DIPPED LS
Hey Everyone,
So I've had some interesting Alt problems over the last few months I thought I'd share, perhaps it might help someone in the future...
It started a few months ago with an occasional "check charging" warning and light. I have a volt meter in my car to keep an eye on voltage with my sound system. so even though I was getting the warning, i was still holding at 13.5-14v... Standard should be 14.5 (IIRC) but the meter is also tied in with a few other accessories, so the reading is a bit off. anyways...
The occasional beep/warning got worse, until I was at Hites working on some other stuff. He had an extra (off brand...IIRC) alt laying around so we through it in. It worked fine, all warnings gone, and charging at 14v... It struggled a bit with the system (drop down to 12 on harder hits), but I just kept my levels down and all was good. I figured this alt struggling was more an issue with this brand alt, vs having a real problem.
It did get worse and struggled to maintain constant charging under normal operation, even with the amps off it still struggled maintaining voltage... to the point where it would charge at 12.5-13.5v at idle, and would occasionally spike (14v-15v) under higher RPM's. you could say this failure started because of the extra load i added to the car.... but I really dont have anything turned up...nothing that should cause this type of failure. (IMO)....anyways. I had plans on ordering a new alt soon, just kept pushing it off...
Then Saturday... on highway, charging at 12.5v, at highway speeds (obviously a problem)... then voltage drops to 11v. got on it a bit to get RPM's up then voltage shot up (11,12,13,14,15!,16!,18!...) at this point electronics went haywire...wipers moving, gauges spiking every light on and all safeties turned off!!! I shut the car off and cruised to a stop. let it sit, started it up, and the car was sitting at 11v (not charging). got up to speed and then voltage spiked again (from 11 to 18+...of my gauge). shut if off again....
limped off the highway (@ 11v) and in to a parking lot... as I was waiting for the tow truck i played around with it...got to the point where at idle @ 14v, headlights on 13v, AC 12v... but the minute I TOUCHED the gas..volts shot over 18...(were I'd immediately shut it off).
New alt ordered that night (ford remain) and even though the batteries less then 2 years old, I'll get a new one too.
The interesting part was the overcharging (and why I posted this). Had I not had a volt meter on the car, I would have never known it was overcharging. By the symptoms while driving and at the time everything went south, I would have said the opposite, that it wasn't charging at all and thats why it was shutting off! Needless to say I would have been alot less careful and most likely done some serious damage...
who knows how unique my failure was... but something someone may want to remember if they think they're having charging issues. To me (and other failures i've read) this sounds similar to an alt no charging at all..for LS's, when in fact this was the opposite! My dummy light was lit through this whole ordeal. So if you are having problems, be careful on how you handle it (or ignoring it).... at no point did mine ever not start, so you can imagine the damage I could have done without that gauge.
Just food for thought... Feel free to comment or add experiences. I obviously waiting to long to take care of this, but assumed this failing alt would be like any other failing alt and would eventually just crap out. Honestly, had I not had a voltage gauge I would have never known (other then the dummy light)....I lucked out nothing worse happened... but hopefully sharing this (my stupidity and luck) might save someone in the future from disaster (if they search
)
Thanks guys
So I've had some interesting Alt problems over the last few months I thought I'd share, perhaps it might help someone in the future...
It started a few months ago with an occasional "check charging" warning and light. I have a volt meter in my car to keep an eye on voltage with my sound system. so even though I was getting the warning, i was still holding at 13.5-14v... Standard should be 14.5 (IIRC) but the meter is also tied in with a few other accessories, so the reading is a bit off. anyways...
The occasional beep/warning got worse, until I was at Hites working on some other stuff. He had an extra (off brand...IIRC) alt laying around so we through it in. It worked fine, all warnings gone, and charging at 14v... It struggled a bit with the system (drop down to 12 on harder hits), but I just kept my levels down and all was good. I figured this alt struggling was more an issue with this brand alt, vs having a real problem.
It did get worse and struggled to maintain constant charging under normal operation, even with the amps off it still struggled maintaining voltage... to the point where it would charge at 12.5-13.5v at idle, and would occasionally spike (14v-15v) under higher RPM's. you could say this failure started because of the extra load i added to the car.... but I really dont have anything turned up...nothing that should cause this type of failure. (IMO)....anyways. I had plans on ordering a new alt soon, just kept pushing it off...
Then Saturday... on highway, charging at 12.5v, at highway speeds (obviously a problem)... then voltage drops to 11v. got on it a bit to get RPM's up then voltage shot up (11,12,13,14,15!,16!,18!...) at this point electronics went haywire...wipers moving, gauges spiking every light on and all safeties turned off!!! I shut the car off and cruised to a stop. let it sit, started it up, and the car was sitting at 11v (not charging). got up to speed and then voltage spiked again (from 11 to 18+...of my gauge). shut if off again....
limped off the highway (@ 11v) and in to a parking lot... as I was waiting for the tow truck i played around with it...got to the point where at idle @ 14v, headlights on 13v, AC 12v... but the minute I TOUCHED the gas..volts shot over 18...(were I'd immediately shut it off).
New alt ordered that night (ford remain) and even though the batteries less then 2 years old, I'll get a new one too.
The interesting part was the overcharging (and why I posted this). Had I not had a volt meter on the car, I would have never known it was overcharging. By the symptoms while driving and at the time everything went south, I would have said the opposite, that it wasn't charging at all and thats why it was shutting off! Needless to say I would have been alot less careful and most likely done some serious damage...
who knows how unique my failure was... but something someone may want to remember if they think they're having charging issues. To me (and other failures i've read) this sounds similar to an alt no charging at all..for LS's, when in fact this was the opposite! My dummy light was lit through this whole ordeal. So if you are having problems, be careful on how you handle it (or ignoring it).... at no point did mine ever not start, so you can imagine the damage I could have done without that gauge.
Just food for thought... Feel free to comment or add experiences. I obviously waiting to long to take care of this, but assumed this failing alt would be like any other failing alt and would eventually just crap out. Honestly, had I not had a voltage gauge I would have never known (other then the dummy light)....I lucked out nothing worse happened... but hopefully sharing this (my stupidity and luck) might save someone in the future from disaster (if they search
)Thanks guys
