Over charging...................

[Z51JEFF]

What would cause an over charging problem?With the car idling the gage sits at 17 volts.I havent checked anything with a meter yet,just found this NEW problem.most likely the voltage regulator.I get the car back togather from replacing the injectors and now I need to remove the plenum to remove the altenator

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by Z51JEFF

What would cause an over charging problem?With the car idling the gage sits at 17 volts.I havent checked anything with a meter yet,just found this NEW problem.most likely the voltage regulator.I get the car back togather from replacing the injectors and now I need to remove the plenum to remove the altenator

Either a bad gauge (doubtful) or an overzealous internal regulator would be my guess

[Jagdpanzer]

put a meter on it first to make sure the dash gauge is reading right.
if you realy are seeing 17 volts the batterie could be toast

[tomtom72]

I'm not so sure that the gauge is designed to give us a linear read out except at the extreme edges of the sweep....kind of like our oil & water temp gauges if ya know what I mean??? What I'm trying to say is that the volt gauge should not be relied upon for any diagnostic in the micro sense.....it's purely a macro reading....if it don't move at all or if it gets pegged there is something wrong for sure, anything in the swept area is only an approximate volt reading.

[Z51JEFF]

What are the chances of this being a bad battery?I drove the car to work last night to see if this was a fluke,no dice.I had a few minutes so I took my meter and checked voltage at the battery and at idle it was 16 volts,raise the RPM and the volts would come up.The altenator in this car is fairly new,that dont mean squat I know.If its the voltage regulator Ill just get at it.Driving the car I had to turn on everything to bring the volts down just to get the battery Icon to go out in the panel display.

[zr1don]

If there are weak cells in the battery the alternator try's to charge them. If the battery is fully charged the voltage should come down to the 13.8 to 14.2 range. Also, what is your battery voltage w/o engine running. A charged battery should be over 12 volts, new around 12.8 volts.

[Paul Workman]

I'm not a chemical engineer, but from my days of specifying, building, writing about, and inspecting lead acid batteries and systems for remote radio and microwave repeater sites, I can tell ya that 17 volts across a twelve volt battery in typical summer temperatures will boil the crap outta the lead/acid battery in no time! I would expect to see some evidence of that on the top of the battery; 17 volts being the case.

I would put a volt meter across the battery terminals (engine running) and see what is really going on. If the charging voltage is in fact around 17, chances are your regulator is whacked, or there is a bad ground in the charging circuit, perhaps.

But, if the voltage across the battery is "normal" (approx. 14.5 immediately after normal engine start or 13.5 after driving for say an hour or so in normal summer temps), I'd say it was your gauge or perhaps a bad ground in the instrument cluster(?).

First thing tho...Ya wanna know what that charging voltage actually is, so I'd start there first.

Good luck. Hope it is just a funky gauge reading and your battery is not cooked!

P.

[QB93Z]

My local battery place will do a system test of the charging system and the battery capacity for free. That would give a definitive answer to what is going on.

Jim

[Z51JEFF]

Voltage across the battery is 16+ volts ay idle.Ive got everything apart and have a new regulator.

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by Z51JEFF

Voltage across the battery is 16+ volts ay idle.Ive got everything apart and have a new regulator.

Is that 16+ with the new regulator installed, or are you referring to the voltage across the battery w/ the old regulator installed, and you have the alternator apart, ready for the new regulator? (I'm cornfoozed )

P.