possible alternator problem ??

[Darkstar]

Hi all,

went to the van this morning all eger to get the shopping out the way, did the usual preflight checks, glowlights ignition !!!!!.

WRUP CLICKITY CLICK ???

Now not had any issues before this always fired on first turn, no warning lights or anything.

dug out my Lidl battery/alternator tester, battery below 11v banged it on charge with my Lidl battery charger (other brands available),

Gave it about an hour, got it started, then tested the alternator it initially showed charging (yellow light) 13.2v i think then switched on light went to green Max charge i then switched aircon on tester went down to 12v reving the engine would bring it up to charging light but not to max charge. still no dash light warning

so off i went to my local auto factors, got them to test it just to make sure, they confirmed my findings that the alternator was charging at 12v or as they said the van was running of the battery.

Has anyone had similar symptoms or any suggestions to any further checks i can do.

does the aircon really draw heavy current or do i have a fault with that??

any ideas appreciated.

cheers

[winchman]

Assuming your meters accurate, you should get 13.8 volts at the battery at about 2000 rpm.
As a rough rule if a battey drops to below 9 volts when cranking the engine its had it, but a digital meter wont show this as they are too slow to respond to the fast drop, analogue ones show it fine.
A good motor factors will have a gadget that can test the system under load and electronically test the battery, dont let them use a traditional discharge tester, big sparky thing.
To be honest I would just ask an auto electrician to check it over as you dont wnat to play the " Find The Faulty Part Game"
I once bought a camper that some one had scrapped as it had two batteries and three altinators, and just wouldnt hold a charge and rarely ran right. Took one hour to fix most of that in the scrap yard looking for a new earth cable as thats what was wrong looked fine on the outside but corroded internally, I ran it for two years once I changed it it was fab.
The air con compressor puts a big load on the engine mechanically via the belt, you can often hear the engine labour as it clicks in and out whilst at idle, but a small electrical load as it pulls the magnetic clutch in

[teenmal]

Hi Darkstar,

The air con will draw quite a bit,IE the clutch/the heater blower and the rad fan/s.

[maviczap]

My alternator went just before Christmas, the charge light & sediment tank light on the dash don't go out, even if you rev the engine

Which is the indication that you should get on the dash, if the alternator is fubarred.

My Lidl battery/alternator tester gave a similar reading to what yours did.

Wipers were also very slow even with the engine running.

I got one of these to replace my old alternator, which was dead easy to fit and cured all the problems

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310358250327#ht_1145wt_1110

[Darkstar]

thanks all for replies so far,

Winchman, they used an load tester similar to the silverline ones on ebay, the battery tester did drop quite a bit when cranking to about half charged light on my tester, "its so long since i've worked on cars i had forgotten the punch the starter motor can give, i have found some tips on alternator checking on the alterator and startermotor.co.uk website, will give them a go weather permiting, as i only use the van weekends around town i wonder whether it gets enough charge pottering about.

Maviczap, i have'nt had any dash warnings at all, all bulbs show on pre startup, not added any kit to electrics,

im going to give i a charger over night and see what happens over the week i'll give the terminals a scrub just in case too,

thanks again
more suggestions welcome.

[wonkanoby]

how olds the battery

[Darkstar]

how olds the battery

i was told it was new by the importer when i bought it two years ago,

[Darkstar]

Looks i may need to start another thread. possible Air Con Problems

went over the electric this morning, charged battery over night (fully charged), checked connections to alternator all seem ok.


put (Aldi-Powerfix) battery/ alternator tester on,
inginition on Battery level drops from 12.6 to 12.0v on the tester when ingition turned on

when engine running at idle nothing switched on 13.2v light on bright
with lights on 13.2v light dims then comes back on
Fans on still ok
when i turn AC on it crashes down to 12.v turn AC off comes back up to 13.2v

so i did a few tests at different revs each time i turned AC on it crashes the revs and alternator voltage.

one test was at 2000 RPM:temp set to 18 switched on AC and it crashed to around 1100 RPM
now i know AC put a load on the engine but that cant be right. some mornings first thing it feels like i'm dragging a trailer, now i know why.

any change of someone with a sound AC nipping out to replicate the test and feed back results

[teenmal]

Hi,

This might help (sorry cant rev the engine at the moment)

Batt =+12.7V

IGN on =+12.1V (glow plugs)

Engine idle =+14.3V

Turn on Ac = +13.6VT

cheers..

[jaylee]

Looks i may need to start another thread. possible Air Con Problems

went over the electric this morning, charged battery over night (fully charged), checked connections to alternator all seem ok.


put (Aldi-Powerfix) battery/ alternator tester on,
inginition on Battery level drops from 12.6 to 12.0v on the tester when ingition turned on

when engine running at idle nothing switched on 13.2v light on bright
with lights on 13.2v light dims then comes back on
Fans on still ok
when i turn AC on it crashes down to 12.v turn AC off comes back up to 13.2v

so i did a few tests at different revs each time i turned AC on it crashes the revs and alternator voltage.

one test was at 2000 RPM:temp set to 18 switched on AC and it crashed to around 1100 RPM
now i know AC put a load on the engine but that cant be right. some mornings first thing it feels like i'm dragging a trailer, now i know why.

any change of someone with a sound AC nipping out to replicate the test and feed back results

You don't have a duff vacuum solenoid perchance...? http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... m+solenoid

[Darkstar]

Looks i may need to start another thread. possible Air Con Problems

went over the electric this morning, charged battery over night (fully charged), checked connections to alternator all seem ok.


put (Aldi-Powerfix) battery/ alternator tester on,
inginition on Battery level drops from 12.6 to 12.0v on the tester when ingition turned on

when engine running at idle nothing switched on 13.2v light on bright
with lights on 13.2v light dims then comes back on
Fans on still ok
when i turn AC on it crashes down to 12.v turn AC off comes back up to 13.2v

so i did a few tests at different revs each time i turned AC on it crashes the revs and alternator voltage.

one test was at 2000 RPM:temp set to 18 switched on AC and it crashed to around 1100 RPM
now i know AC put a load on the engine but that cant be right. some mornings first thing it feels like i'm dragging a trailer, now i know why.

any change of someone with a sound AC nipping out to replicate the test and feed back results

You don't have a duff vacuum solenoid perchance...? http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... m+solenoid

Sounds interesting Jaylee, a bit late to have a look now, are all the solenoids in the same area?
I do have the ERG valve blanked so would be great if it was a cheap fix, will have a look next weekend.

cheers

[maviczap]

You're idle voltage looks a bit low, mines pumping out about 14.5

Even if your dash lights aren't one, maybe it could still be your alternator.

Even after charging my battery overnight and driving 5 miles to work and 5 miles back, with the lights on and using indicators I'd find the battery would need charging once I got home, otherwise it wouldn't start on the glowplugs the next morning.

I even got stranded at the shops after using too much elec juice from wipers on the way to work.

So until I got the new alternator, I had to charge the battery every night

[jaylee]

Looks i may need to start another thread. possible Air Con Problems

went over the electric this morning, charged battery over night (fully charged), checked connections to alternator all seem ok.


put (Aldi-Powerfix) battery/ alternator tester on,
inginition on Battery level drops from 12.6 to 12.0v on the tester when ingition turned on

when engine running at idle nothing switched on 13.2v light on bright
with lights on 13.2v light dims then comes back on
Fans on still ok
when i turn AC on it crashes down to 12.v turn AC off comes back up to 13.2v

so i did a few tests at different revs each time i turned AC on it crashes the revs and alternator voltage.

one test was at 2000 RPM:temp set to 18 switched on AC and it crashed to around 1100 RPM
now i know AC put a load on the engine but that cant be right. some mornings first thing it feels like i'm dragging a trailer, now i know why.

any change of someone with a sound AC nipping out to replicate the test and feed back results

You don't have a duff vacuum solenoid perchance...? http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... m+solenoid

Sounds interesting Jaylee, a bit late to have a look now, are all the solenoids in the same area?
I do have the ERG valve blanked so would be great if it was a cheap fix, will have a look next weekend.

cheers

My EGR isn't blanked.. But these two solenoids aid the revs/tick-over on the cold start.. The one on the right activates & holds the idle speed up when the AC is on too...! Just a thought..?

I'm not dismissing your alternator or the battery... But, i'd check the connections to the battery & earth-strap too??

Had sort of similar symptoms to you a good year back... No problems since!

These Bongo's do odd things...

[Bongobreaker]

Had (sort of) similar problem this morning just prior to MOT (passed!!).

Went out and started it (first twitch of the key) to warm it up. No problem. Left it running for 10 minutes then went out,tried to switch the mirrors out/clean the windscreen - virtually nothing although still running fine! Switched the lights on, had a check and still hardly any electrical power. Moved it about 20 feet, a few revs and the whole lot kicked in, dashboard lit up, wipers, lights, the works.

The guys at the garage had a look and tested battery/alternator (all fairly recently new) and couldn't find any problem. Looks like I'll have to leave it until it happens again.

Any thoughts anyone?

[Northern Bongolow]

the glow plugs continue to work for quite a while after starting, so will still be hammering a dodgey battery, or not charged fully batt. left ticking over after a start it will drain the last good bit out of the batt until you rev it and the alternator increases its charging. (things start to work again.)

either battery is knacked, or more like the alternator is not charging at low revs/tick over, then jumps into life later when revved, check the outputs on tick over and when revving. is it a black banded painted one, or is it the proper mazda 90 amp green banded one??