Alternator Woes...

[mcandmar]

Last few times I started the car I had no charge, red light on the dash and voltage was below 12v. After I rev the engine over 2000rpms the light goes out and I’m back to 14v charge. Happens with engine cold or warm, 2/3 times i start.

Belt is dry, and nice and tight, no squeaks either. Alternator was re-conditioned about a year ago.

Any ideas? I feel the credit card warming up..

[pastures16]

looks like its on its way out mate

[Stephan Althaus]

I Agree. There's a magnetic field missing. You get the Power back because there's magnetism left in the iron masses.
Maybe there's a chance. Clean all contacts if not done before, theres also a little spring in it you might have missed.

Stephan

[quattronutter]

check your battery with a hydrometer to see if its ok,sometimes a duff battery can cause problems...

[S2 Ant]

Sounds like the alternator is on its way out and the starting point for charging is knackered, Ive had this before on previous cars and it will eventually get worse.
On a Golf it ended up having to go over 4000rpm before it started charging!!!

Genuine, alternators are not cheap either!! Dunno about other places like GSF etc. but they are very powerful alternators.... 120amp i believe

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Sometimes it's just the brushes, but I am not sure if you can change them on these alternators? I know you can on some Bosch alts.

__MDC__

[dkw_dude]

Sometimes it's just the brushes, but I am not sure if you can change them on these alternators? I know you can on some Bosch alts.

__MDC__

I recently did on my 3B. Had some new brushes for an old Audi 80 lying around when my alternator refused to charge. 20 mins of disassembly, soldering and assembling and I was on the road again.. A few days before I was on a 350 km trip, strange it didn't happen then..

Cheers,
Leif-Helge

[twoqu]

Hi!,

Try the voltage regulator. It usually held in the back of the alternator with two screws.
Cheap enough to try a replacement. Depends what was done when re-conned. Could be worn or a bit sticky.

[mcandmar]

Update,

Ok make that 3000rpms, as soon as i passed that point it works fine, i.e i can let the engine idle again and i get 13-14v charge.

If i hit the ABS button after starting it kicks in much sooner, around 2000rpms.

Guess i have to pull it out again eh

Thanks,

Mark.

Sounds like the alternator is on its way out and the starting point for charging is knackered, Ive had this before on previous cars and it will eventually get worse.
On a Golf it ended up having to go over 4000rpm before it started charging!!!

Genuine, alternators are not cheap either!! Dunno about other places like GSF etc. but they are very powerful alternators.... 120amp i believe

[mcandmar]

Update

Problem went away so I left it be, I’m such an idiot

Last night the voltage dropped to 11v on my way home, 40 odd miles away I might add. 30 mins later it was down at 10v, 20mins later I was at 9v's and mis firing with anything more than half throttle. Few mins later the battery warning light was on and so was the autocheck warning for battery. At this stage I had the odd ecu re-boot while driving too It finally died 2 mins later when I let it idle entering my driveway

She got me home

Battery is stone dead, will light the dash and run the fuel pump but wont turn the engine over.

Mark.

[pastures16]

at least you got home mate recharge the battery over night start her up in the morning test the alt theres a large pos lead on the back of the alt that will give you a true out put

[pastures16]

40 odd miles away I might add. 30 mins later (were you on a go slow)

[mcandmar]

Took about an hour, including the stop to check the belt and connections bests I could, the rest was all country roads with candle power headlights. Didn’t want to use full beams to conserve power, or high revs, brake lights, heater, I even turned the dash lights down to fully dim Haven’t had a chance to look at it since..

Mark.

[Stephan Althaus]

I once had the same problem, and the voltage regulator replaced by a garage, but the problem reoccured. The connections had not been cleaned. Check the connections of the mass cables in the bay.

Get it out, unmount the voltage regulator, clean all connection-surfaces, and reassemble.
If you place 12V on D+, you should a resistance when turning the axle of the alternator.


Stephan

P.S.
Here's a howto in german

http://home.t-online.de/home/janvi/lima.htm

[Stephan Althaus]

Here are some nice pics

http://kfz.josefscholz.de/Lima.html

Stephan