Battery charger, 12 months per annum, never plug it in to the mains supply, more on that subject here.

 

Sounds like your alternator's knackered.

 

OK....

I bought a heavy duty charger this morning and have had the battery on charge since 11.30 this morning.

It's now 11.15pm and I've just disconnected the battery charger and tested the battery which gave a reading of 13.17 on the meter.

I then started the car, which it did first time, and it showed a reading of 11.91 to 11.94 with the engine running.

I then turned the interior blowers on and it reduced the reading down to 11.81 to 11.84 with the engine running.

Hopefully, it will start OK in the morning....

 

Best of luck for the morning M8, a long slow charge is better than a quick one. With revs on at say 2000 that reading is low it should be closer to [13.8 to 14.2] 14 volts. So if it continues you may need to look at the voltage regulator on your alternator, or the alternator itself.

 

I am 99% sure the rectifier/regulator is/are broken.
I had the same with my motorbike and also with several older cars I owned.

 

Thanks QinteQ and Vmaxxer

Is the regulator/rectifier that you tqalk about part of the alternator or a separate part altogether? Is there a definitive way to find out if that is at fault? Expensive job?

I'm guessing if it is that part that the battery will keep draining?

 

Hi

Its worth checking the alternator pulley before condemming the alternator, make sure the pulley is turning the rotor inside. These are OAD pulleys, they are not a solid pulley see this.

Veyance Technologies: Understanding Alternator Pulley Technology - YouTube

The "regulator" I think is part of the ECU engine management system, not integral to the alternator.

I had the same problem, flat battery and the gremlin dials movement and it was the alternator.

When you fix it, you might want to do the 33k Ohm mod to the temperature sensor that some of us have done. Basically it ups the float voltage from just under 14 V (for the Gel Spiral original battery) to just over 14 V (for a normal lead acid battery) I think its a "Leedsman" thread, I'll try and find it for you.

Hope this helps.

Rodger

 

Thats brilliant, thanks Rodger.

My wife drove approx. 22 miles today and only just managed to get home before the car cut out again with a flat battery...

I spoke to the mechanic we use who unfortunately doesnt have the time until next Tuesday to look at the car, but he said it sounded very like an alternator failure...

I got a price at our local factors today for a new alternator and they quoted £320+VAT for a new Sovereign one

Might just wait till the garage have looked at it first in case it is the pulley or belt

 

You can get new alternators for less than that, see Eurocarparts as an example, and you could probably get a good used one for a lot less from an on-line breakers.

 

I just spoke to a friend of mine in the trade and he seems to think along the lines of Rodger, in that, I should rule out other simpler possibilities first.

He has suggested that a diagnostic machine may throw up a fault in the ECU caused after jump starting the car...

I may attempt to get a diagnostic ran on the car as a starting point.