I have 2004 w12 phaeton and when i start car voltmeter shows like 13 volts and when it takes like 20 seconds to reach 13.8 and if I push on gas little bit it goes right on 13.8 or 13.9
So my question how many volts should be if all system works fine? and how long after start should take to go 13.8? Could be that my batteries going bad?
Have a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban. The voltmeter reading varies from 13 to 16 volts, no obvious reasons for changes in the reading. Chevy says there are a number of different inputs that determine what the reading should be, such as battery temp, etc. On older cars you could use the voltage to determine when something was going wrong with the electrical system. Other that a complete loss of alternator output, can you use the reading to diagnose electrical problems, such as a bad or dying battery?
View 4 RepliesSo I went to Target with my wife yesterday and after about 30 mins of shopping, left the store and tried to start the Ex and will not start. The engine tuned over slowly like the battery did not have enough juice to start the truck. So I had it jumped and it started right up. So I went to autozone and the battery and alternator tested and both and in good working order.
Today it happened again. After stopping at a fast food joint to grab a quick bite, same thing it did not start. But before I started the truck the voltmeter showed about 12.6 volts. When I tried to start it, the engine turned really slow and did not start. By that time the volt meter showed about only 6.5 volts. So trying to start it just drained the battery. I had it jumped and it started right up. Went back to Autozone and had the battery and alternator tested and both are fine.
Once the truck is running, the volt meter shows ~13.5 - 14 v volts. No other electrical issues while driving. What's happening? What should I check for? The battery is about 3 years old. I will charge the battery over night and see what happens tomorrow.
I have a trouble code of 446 and can't find the wiring for the solenoid valve at the canister. I think I should have constant 12 volts and the computer is regulating the ground. but I don't see the constant 12 volts. I don't have a wiring diagram so don't know where it is supposed to come from.
View 4 RepliesI am attempting to wire a set of LED daytime running lights and was hoping to go through the fuse box. No luck so far trying to find a 12 volts that turns on when the key is turned.I have tried to tie into the fuse on both the radio fuses and the fog light fuse.There is 12 volts even when the key is not turned so when I wired the lights off these fuses , it would light the leds all the time. Is there another fuse box?
View 1 RepliesMy voltmeter (91 Explorer) bounces with loads, i.e. when sitting at a stop light with the brake lights and turn signal on.
Revving the engine up doesn't seem to work. What does this indicate? Bad battery? Bad alternator or voltage regulator?
2005 Mercury Grand Marquis, 102K miles
I noticed the other day that the voltmeter on my instrument cluster was indicating a bit low from normal (dead center). Knowing better than to blindly trust a cluster gauge I checked voltages with a multimeter, and it read 13.3V at the battery, and 13.4V at the alternator. This was after a 35 mile drive home from work with the A/C running virtually the whole time. Later on that evening I ran an errand, and noticed that despite the car sitting for a couple hours, the voltmeter was in the same low-ish spot. Checked voltages again with the multimeter, and they had not changed either, still 13.3/13.4V.
This morning I drove to work, and saw that the gauge (and voltages) did NOT drop off. Meter was dead center like it should be, and testing showed 13.9V all around. Today I drove home and kept the A/C off, and once again everything stayed right where they started, 13.9V. As an experiment I then turned on the A/C once I got home and rechecked voltages: within seconds it was back down to 13.3V, and it did NOT recover back to 13.9V after shutting the A/C off. It looks like once the voltage drops, it stays there for a while regardless of A/C being on or not.
Seems to me like it's possibly a slightly weak alternator (I don't like that it never quite reaches 14V under any circumstances). Another thought I had was that perhaps the belt tensioner is weak, as I did notice that when the A/C compressor clutch is engaged, the tensioner wiggles back-and-forth a bit, then returns to steady and solid when the clutch disengages. I should also add that the battery voltage when off is always good, 12.5V to 12.7V.
My 99 Ranger charges intermittently. Sometimes it is just fine, sometimes the voltmeter drops and the light comes on. Might go a mile, might go all day without an issue. Alternator was replaced 2 weeks ago. Where to look? I haven't ruled out the possibility of a bad "new" alternator, but I haven't been able to get it to act up when I actually have time to start diagnosing it. Is there a relay somewhere that could be causing this?
View 14 RepliesProblem: Fuel tank near empty and the gauge (appropriately) reads near empty. I pull into a gas station and fill up. In spite of a full tank, the fuel gauge is still near empty and the warning light/chime is still on. I turned the car off and restarted it several times but no change.
I can't recall any and could not find any reference in the table of contents.
When my fuel gauge gets to 3/4s full it stops working and goes to empty. My range display also goes off. When I refill it works again until it reaches the same point.
View 5 RepliesSo my understanding is the water temp gauge at 200 degrees is pretty much spot on. The last three days I notice the temp gauge go to 200 then up to 240 which is like just one line away from the red zone. I turned on my heat full blast and was on the tollway and the temps went back to 200. The moment I got back into stop and go traffic the temp goes up again 220-240 range. Again, one line away from the red zone. No other alarms or dash messages come up. No smell of anti-freeze.
As well, the oil temp which was always at 200 has done the same thing. Running over 200 in the 220 plus range. Could this just be low anti-freeze? If so, would I not get a dash warning light?
Noticed a slight flickering of my guage lights recently. All other lights in the car as well as all screened displays are stable and do not fluctuate. I've raised and lowered the instrument dimmer control which functions as it should to no avail. Voltage of left battery is to spec so I assume the alternators output is OK.
View 3 RepliesAfter owning my Phaeton for over two years and never seeing the temperature gauge move past the 200 degree mark, I was surprised to see it start to fluctuate on my ride home from Michigan today.
It went up to around 240 then back to 220 and continued between those two for the duration of the 3 hour drive. I know those temperatures are within the safe range but was wondering if it would have continued to rise if I had been driving on a longer trip. Right now I have the hood opened and am waiting for the engine to cool down before checking the coolant level.
This car has operated flawlessly for me and I think a visit to the VW service department is in order prior to the warranty expiration just to have a good look at all the possible issues that might pop up! Even though I have a CPO for another 2 years, I'd prefer not to have to find out what isn't covered in a pinch.
The outside temperature gauge and park distance system on my Phaeton isn't working. In place of the temperature reading on the dash it just says --.-C I've had it scanned at my local Bosch diagnostic garage and it showed a fault on all six front parking sensors. I can't recall whether he mentioned the temperature sensor as well but I put a new one on anyway as they are cheap and easy to get at. It made no difference. They were very busy so didn't have an opportunity to do any further investigation or dis-assembly and I was in no rush so am taking it back next week.
I have checked the two block connectors which the wires from the parking sensors and temperature sensors go in to and that seems properly connected. Is there another connector somewhere or is there a fuse that protects these somewhere as there isn't a fuse described in the manual as being related to these?
The last two fill-ups I have noticed the fule gauge only goes to the last small mark before the "full" line. I haven't hit any thing under the car. It can be slow to fill but I know it's full.....like really full, to the small filler hole full . Is there a way to reset the fuel gauge limits with a Vag-Com?
View 5 RepliesProblem with my 2006 F150 5.4 4x4... Voltmeter spikes, battery light comes on, grinding noise as 4x4 engages on its own then everything returns to normal after about 60 seconds. Took to Ford who replaced the alternator and battery, still doing it so they replaced the alternator again...they checked the wiring and replaced some other misc parts and don't know what the problem is. The problem occurs once every few days, after only a few minutes or after a few hours, completely random.
View 6 Replies2014 Prius V. Voltage on headlights 14. 63 volts. This reading is from of the low beam headlights. What could be causing this problem.
View 7 RepliesI have had my egg for just under two weeks and have had my first issue. Was driving home tonight and noticed and error message on the dash. Mentioned something about shutting down some electronics... it then said it was going to shut of the AC. Kind of strange so I looked down at my Volt meter and it was only registering 10.5 volts. As soon as i got home i got on vwvortex and searched. Found a lot of dead batteries and slow drains but not much info on low voltage out of the alt. I took the truck into the dealer and they said it was the cable issue between the alt and the battery.
View 10 RepliesMy battery drains to 8v volts when I turn the key to the on position, not starting the car just turning it to the on position. I have done the key off parasitic voltage draw and there is none. This only happens when I turn the to the on position or start the car. The battery will only stay charged from a full charge to 8v or till car shuts off for less than 5 minutes. This is a huge draw! Okay it has a new battery and a new alternator, and I took battery out and did an ohms check received 14 ohms between neg and pos cable with battery out. I was told that was fine or normal. So any clues on what would cause my battery to drain so quickly? When I hook up my DVM to the battery while car is running I get 1 volt or more drop per minute only while running.
View 1 RepliesI have an 85 bronco ii 2.8l, carb, with around 109K on it , ran pretty good, some stubles here and there but found out how to read codes and went from there.... Retreived codes 23, 31 and 84. Checked TPS, had voltage to sig return pin but was low, pulled the carb, bought a rebuild kit while i was at it and redid most of the gaskets but did not take the inner parts of the carb out, put on a new TPS, installed the carb, unhooked battery for about half an hour and noticed it idled very high. Once you were moving the rpm's would drop but at idle would climb again. I ran the codes again and got 31, 63 and 84. checked volts from black to vref i have 4.9 and from black to sigrtn i have 0. i have traced all 3 wires through the bundle and did not see any breaks i know that the green wire goes to the ECM? but i do not know what to check from this point.
View 2 RepliesAnother thread on here about Time for Batteries got me to thinking about mine and whether I should change them based upon time.
They have been in the truck 4 years and 6 months or so. I was reading some older threads recommending changing around the 3 year mark to prevent damage to the FICM.
I don't drive the truck everyday and sometimes it sits for 3 weeks or so. I noticed 2 days ago when I took it to work, I got one of the slowest cranks I've ever gotten. But after it's started and the glow plugs turn off, I get ~ 14.1 - 13.4 or so volts.
FICM voltage never drops below 47 and usually runs between 47.5 and 48.5 volts.
I'm not sure what size alternator is on there. Plus it's a single. I also have the upgraded cables that Mr. Jack recommended for extra battery life. I guess it's time for batteries though?