The quickes test of your altinators condition is to start the engin, turn on
the lights, rev the engin to > 1500 rpm. At which point it's safe to assume
the altinator is giving out enough current, then turn off the engin. You
should see the lights dim, if they don't your not chargin the battery, the
altinator is broken. With the heater on and lights on in my car when the
revs go below 800 rpm the fan slows and lights dim. Above 800 rpm the
lights brighten and heater works fast. This shows the altinator is working
properly, and is a good thing to look out for when driving, it might be your
altinator gets hot and stops working.
Stick a volt meter accross the battery terminals, with the engin running.
Everyone should own a multimeter, same as a torque wrench! Normaly this
should read 12.5 to 14.5 volts idealy some where between 13 and 14. With
the engin off, a fully charged battery will give you 11+ volts.
One posibility is dirty battery contacts, a high resistance joint here will
lead to the altenator rasing the charge voltage to it's normal 13+ volts,
but the voltage at the battery terminals(on the lead) will be less.
Reduceing the current flow.
Try plugin your volt meter into the ciggaret lighter socket on the dash.
It will tell you what the charge voltage is throughout the journy. If you
read a constent voltage mabe your fule and temp gadge voltage regulator on
the back of the speedo needs renewing.
I currently have suspisions that my altinator is about to fail, in a 6months
to year or so time. When I have the electric cooling fan running, and the
engin is at a constant rpm it seems to run at normal charging speed, then
jumps into super fast speed. With out the engin running, it soon slows to
below thoes two speeds. This could of course be the normal opperation of
the altinator. i.e. mantaining the volage needed to satisfy the current
load, and then sometimes topping up the battery when the voltage gets too
low.
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