hey guys,
My '83 1.6L AA Cordia GSL has had an annoying electrical problem for a while and I'm thinking the alternator is stuffed, but wanted to hear some other peoples thoughts.
Problem: when car is idling (in drive) and some accessories are turned on (headlights, aircon, radio, wipers, etc) if I indicate left or right, the indicator will either blink irregularly or freeze in the 'on' state.
I have tested the battery -- reads ~12.35 volts with car off I have tested for parasitic drain when car off -- reads ~1.7mA (already knew this wasn't a problem, but tested anyway) Tested battery with car on -- reads ~13.7V (isn't this a bit low? shouldn't it be above 14V if the alternator was doing it's job?)
Tested battery again under load (in drive, low beams, radio, wipers, aircon, etc), battery drops to ~11.6V, indicators work fine Add in high beams -- battery drops to ~11.5V and the indicator problem appears.
What I can gather from my testing is that so long voltage doesn't drop below 11.6V, indicators work fine. But 11.5V even under load seems extremely low to me -- hence my thoughts that the alternator is not doing its job properly.
What do you guys think?
Is there something else aside from bad alternator that could cause such a problem?
I thought maybe another accessory could be faulty, drawing too much power & causing excessive drain, but all other accessories seem to work fine & there is no parasitic drain when car is off...
Another issue, which may or may not be related is that I have noticed that 'very' rarely the battery gauge in the dash pings from high to low repetitively when accelerating at about 100km/h. Could that also be a symptom of a bad alternator or something else?
FYI: I know that the electrics and wiring has not been touched since it left the factory (except for replacement alternators over the past 20+ years) because it used to be my parents car and is completely stock.
Cheers
|