Electrical help needed (Battery/Alternator)

[Wilsonp83 1]

Hi all,

I've not long bought my VR6, It's a 97 R Highline and it needs some work doing to it but not huge amounts.

Biggest nause I have at the moment is that the battery doesn't seem to hold it's charge. My thought was maybe the alternator is on it's way out but the battery light doesn't come on on the dash for this to be the case.

Next up I bought from GSF a laser voltage, battery, alternator checker. It keeps thing simple for people like me who are electrically challenged! So, with a fully charged battery the checker says it's all good. Start the engine and @ 2000rpm it's producing between 13.5V (normal) and 14V (strong). So I leave it running to heat up whilst I am doing other things.

Come back to it later and the battery is down at 12.0V (fair)??!! And I'm sure that when I come back to it again in the morning it will be dead too! This has happened before so I bought a new battery!

Every time I turn off the ignition, the needles stay in their last position, i.e. temp is in vertical, revs are about 1000rpm and fuel indicates. until you then go to restart and it all resets. Also, each time the time clock resets to 00:00.

This is my first VR6 so any help would be much appreciated

WilsonP

[VR6Pete 1,455]

If your only getting 12v with the engine running, it would suggest a problem with your alternator...

with ignition off, you should see 12v....

as you have pointed out, you should get 13.5v - 14v all the time when the engine is running.

Pete

[Wilsonp83 1]

Many thanks Pete, looks like alternator change is next. Is it safe enough to assume that you should replace it with the same one? My point is GSF do a lot of different ones. I'm still going to have a Bosch one

[Gazbarber1982 3]

Yeah there is 3 or 4 i think. Your's will have a 120 amp one if it's a highline. They're the same for the Ford Galaxy V6 also. You can pick them up fairly cheap on ebay.

[Gazbarber1982 3]

Yeah there is 3 or 4 i think. Your's will have a 120 amp one if it's a highline. They're the same for the Ford Galaxy V6 also. You can pick them up fairly cheap on ebay.

[Wilsonp83 1]

ok sweet, just tested it again now. Just to throw another one in there!

The battery had held it's charge overnight (actual shock!) and car started. The alternator was producing 13.5V, I was most confused, so I took it for a quick drive. When I came back I tested it again and same thing so I thought I'd put it under high load. I put on pretty much everything electrical I could think of. This led to the alternator having a low output of 13V.

I am quite confused now. Any thoughts?

[Wilsonp83 1]

cheers too gazbarber

[drew 0]

check the main wire to the alternator.. if it is not really tight it could be cuasing a spark and not working properly.. will see evidence on the thread of the bolt, if this is the case..

[Gazbarber1982 3]

Mine outputs 14.2v according to my amp when just the radio is on and 13.9v with everything on. Either a cable is a bit loose like drew said or maybe your alternator is on it's way out.

[VDub_Steve 1]

same happened to mine turned out to be the earth connected to the alternator.

[Pearsy47 1]

i don t the same i replaced the bat twice (lucky for me under warranty lol) as the second new bat would hold a charge of 10v then when charging it see it went up to 13v then when i turned off the charger dropped like a stone back down to 10v !! but defo make sure all earthing wires have good connections !!