alternator recharging Battery slowly????

[speedy_talon28]

well, I've been having trouble with my car lately, I would charge the battery and I could drive the car (headlights and heater on) but, on my way to work my lights would start getting dim and later stops working. The funny thing is 4 hrs after I get off work the car would start so, when I got home I charged it again and used a digital meter on the battery after running it and that's when I noticed the alternator was recharging the battery slowly. I mean I can count 1 1000 2 1000 3 1000 4 1000 that's what does for every volt, that's how slow it recharges????

 

[91 Turbo Mitsu]

First of all you need to figure out if the alternator is charging properly. Start the car and take your voltmeter and hook it to the battery. With everything shut off at idle you should see about 13 volts at the battery. If not you probably need a new alternator. If it is charging properly your battery may be going bad, abd if you dont replace it it could destroy your alt. The alt. isnt really designed to recharge a dead or almost dead battery. It puts quite a starin on the alt. Test the alt and report back. Travis

 

[spinninfwdlaser]

Make sure there is proper tension on the belt, as well as the battery being good. Do a load test on the battery. If it passes, move on to the altenator. If you have proper tension and it is still acting up, test the altenator at autozone or a store like it. They will be able to help you determine if its time for a new altenator. Be sure if you do the load test at home that the battery is at a MINIMUM of 12.4 volts to do the test. Too often good batteries get tossed due to improper load testing procedures. Good luck, and hopefully you fix her cheap, or free.

 

[speedy_talon28]

First of all you need to figure out if the alternator is charging properly. Start the car and take your voltmeter and hook it to the battery. With everything shut off at idle you should see about 13 volts at the battery. If not you probably need a new alternator. If it is charging properly your battery may be going bad, abd if you dont replace it it could destroy your alt. The alt. isnt really designed to recharge a dead or almost dead battery. It puts quite a starin on the alt. Test the alt and report back. Travis

well, when I first posted, I should have mentioned that my batt was reading 14.4 volts and the alt was reading 13.4 volts at idle with notthing else running but, I went out to read it again and the batt was 11.9 volts. I could not read the alt volts because it stopped and would not start again

 

[speedy_talon28]

Make sure there is proper tension on the belt, as well as the battery being good. Do a load test on the battery. If it passes, move on to the altenator. If you have proper tension and it is still acting up, test the altenator at autozone or a store like it. They will be able to help you determine if its time for a new altenator. Be sure if you do the load test at home that the battery is at a MINIMUM of 12.4 volts to do the test. Too often good batteries get tossed due to improper load testing procedures. Good luck, and hopefully you fix her cheap, or free.

The alt belt is fine and it does not slip, the batt was at 14.4 volts when I did my test and the alt read 13.3 volts but, now my batt was 11.9 volts. my car started for a while and died again

 

[Blackmitzu]

First off, are your battery connections tight? Then you need to do a load test on the battery to determine if the battery is good. Then move on to the alternator. How many amps is the alternator putting out? It could have a bad diode.

 

[speedy_talon28]

I thought it was a bad alternator but, it was my battery, I put a load tester on it for 15 seconds like my shop maunal says to do, it says after 15 seconds then check the voltage and if it is under 8.9 volts (20 degrees F) then replace it. The battery was 5.4 volts so I'm replacing it tomorrow