17.2 volts?

[suprdave09]

Alternator is maybe 1 month old fuel pump sounds like a rc car at 500000000 rpms, radiator fan will not turn on. Could this all be one electrical issue?

 

[dedlewamp]

17.2 volts is way too much voltage. While driving, you should only see around 13.8-14.5 or so volts. By any chance is your powersteering pump leaking fluid all over your alternator? Or do you have a different exhaust setup closer to the alternator?

I wouldn't reccommend driving much with your alternator in that condition. It's either about ready to completly fail, or you'll end up burning something up due to the high voltage.

A reman. is under $100.00 from the autostore, you could chance a usedone, or try Satan. Most shops will do free alternator testing as well.

 

[DSMJim]

The regulator in the alternator is bad. It keeps the voltage at a steady 14ish volts while driving to charge the battery. Yours is overcharging which will eventually smoke the battery too as it's being charged too fast with too much voltage.

 

[Staytuned]

I second Jim's thoughts here for sure.

 

[project_tsi]

The regulator in the alternator is bad. It keeps the voltage at a steady 14ish volts while driving to charge the battery. Yours is overcharging which will eventually smoke the battery too as it's being charged too fast with too much voltage.

I 3rd this. I've actually had this happen to me. The car was running into the mid 16v range and all the lights and fuel pump were pulsating with the voltage rise and fall. A new alternator and she's all good now.

 

[toybreaker]

Hey,

17.2 volts is frazzlesville for a lot of sensitive and expensive components.

Now that you know you have issues, I'd get a new/reputable reman alternator ASAP.

As in ride your bicycle, bum a ride, or take the bus, (that kind of asap)

There's really not much additional testing you can do on the car. The regulator has some issues, and it's internal. There's very few other things that can cause this.

Continuing to run the car puts the ecu, fuel pump, ignition system, and battery under uneccessary stress. The failure of one of these can give you real troubleshooting headaches, not to mention cost lots of dough.

The answer to your other question, can it make the radiator fans not work, is yes. High voltage will spin those bad daddiess up enough to give you forward thrust WTF

I can see how they'd beg for mercy. Hopefully it's just a fuse....but I'm sure they, and several other things will show some signs of distress from this.

Check all your fuses for opens with a voltmeter. I would imagine some of the fuses are not so happy with the extra excitation, and it might be in your best interest to visually inspect them on an individual basis. Any that look distorted, I would just pitch, and replace with new. When fuses carry more than they were designed for, they don't always fail. A lot of times, they just melt a little, and then they will fail from fatigue in the weakened section months later.

Definately check the electrolyte levels in your battery!!!

Please update your vehicle profile, we don't know how to advise you if we don't know what we're working on.

The 1g and 2g charging systems have some pretty significant differences

 

[DSM JDM]

Mine just reached 18 volts when i was driving home last night AND BLEW MY AMP!! Stupid alternator