Alternator / Charging Issue

[Nervoptik]

Hi guys, maybe someone will point me to the right direction with this:

I have a Pluriel 1.4 petrol 8v my 2003.

Recently alternator won't charge until voltage drops to 9.2 - 9.4V.

Basically, after starting the engine (cold) voltage drops volt by volt and all systems stops one by one in this order: abs, airbag, radio, then finaly battery light comes on at about 9.2V and suddenly it starts charging and stabilise at 14.2V, and battery light goes off.

My wife says that she can hear like a sizzling 3 times (last one longer) in the glove compartment right before it starts charging.

I thought that alternator had a bad earth so i took it off the car, clean it with some brake cleaner and put it back on. Still the same, but i have seen on the alt casing thst it has a crack on the back cover (where rectifier is).

I'm not sure if it's alternator's foult or is there any other relay or system that controls it.

Any idea?

Cheers!

 

P.s. if the engine is still worm/hot when it starts, it's charging straight away as normal.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Nervoptik

[paul.h]

If the battery is down at 9.2 volts then it must need replacing or charging off the car to get it back to about 12.7 volts which could take a day or 2 - if it is only a few hours then that is a sign the battery capacity is down and also needs replacing. How are you managing to start the car with its voltage so low since anything below around 12.3 volts is unlikely to turn the engine over on the starter motor ?

[Nervoptik]

If the battery is down at 9.2 volts then it must need replacing or charging off the car to get it back to about 12.7 volts which could take a day or 2 - if it is only a few hours then that is a sign the battery capacity is down and also needs replacing. How are you managing to start the car with its voltage so low since anything below around 12.3 volts is unlikely to turn the engine over on the starter motor ?

I know is hard to belive, but it is true. Only my wife drives in the city with the multimeter connected to the cigarette lighter plug :)

I charge the battery every 3-4 days for about 6 hours to make sure she'll be ok.

The thing is that the battery drops down to 9.2 in few minutes (8-10 min) there's plenty of consumers (steering, fan, indicators, abs, airbag, ecu, etc) and somehow alternator starts kicking in and in the rest of 15 minutes of journey it manage to charge the battery back. After 8 hours while my wife is at work, car starts fine from 12.5, drops to 9.2 and charging again.

The battery charger test indicates that battery is at 90% of its lifetime.

Today using wipers (which were visibly struggling) battery dropped to 8.8, steering became harder, and finally alternator kicked in.

I'm not sure if it's temperature related tho ... because if the engine is still warm (1-2 hours) it kicks in straight away.

I'm pretty disappointed and frustrated because i don't really wanna buy new battery or alternator to find out that may be something else.

I know that this alt has only 2 wires. A thick one to battery for charging and an excitation wire. Is the excitation wire going trough some sort of relay or anything?

Cheers.

[paul.h]

It sounds to me as though the battery may be the problem and that it no longer has enough capacity. How old is it ? I have found after about 5 to 7 years they are on their way out and need replacing. If all the journeys are 15 minutes then this is not going to be enough to charge a battery up to replace what is used to start a car. If you have another car you could try the voltmeter on it to see how that compares but you could find the voltage will drop as the car is started but not as low as 9 volts but will then get back up quickly.

 

You could check all the wiring for condition and the connections on the battery/alternator/body and engine/gearbox. If you have another car you could also try the battery from that in the C3. You could also try the meter directly on the battery, just in case the socket is not seeing a true voltage and it is not dropping as low as 9 volts.

[Nervoptik]

Hi Paul, thanks for reply.

I got a Laguna, and it starts charging immediately to 14.2 as the c3 does when engine is warm.

Unfortunately i cannot test laguna's battery on c3 because its bigger.

I haven't tried c3s batt on laguna, but i'll do it over the weekend.

 

All wires has been checked, ground ... etc.

Multimeter shows 0.4 volts lower on cigarette socket than on batts terminals but always drops with the same ratio.

Do you know if this alternator is a self excited and the litle wire is just for dashboard battery light? Or is excited trough that litle wire?

Cheers

[paul.h]

How old is the C3 battery ?

 

We had a 2003 1.4 petrol C3 and when I replaced the battery on it I fit a longer one with a greater Ah. From memory, towards the back of the battery tray is a plastic side bit which can be lifted out and put back a bit further to give more room.

 

I have no idea about the alternator.

[Nervoptik]

Thanks Paul, swapped the batts. No change. Must be the alternator. I'll buy a sh one.

Cheers.

[paul.h]

Something you can check. There is an article in the August 2017 Car Mechanics page 27 of a C3 needing a new alternator since the battery was not charging. A new alternator was put on but again it did not charge. Checking the wiring found the alternator lead is connected to the starter lead before it reaches the battery, the starter lead was making a good contact but not the alternator lead - an adjustment was the fix. This was found first by using a voltmeter at the alternator and found battery voltage was not reaching the alternator terminal.

[Nervoptik]

Something you can check. There is an article in the August 2017 Car Mechanics page 27 of a C3 needing a new alternator since the battery was not charging. A new alternator was put on but again it did not charge. Checking the wiring found the alternator lead is connected to the starter lead before it reaches the battery, the starter lead was making a good contact but not the alternator lead - an adjustment was the fix. This was found first by using a voltmeter at the alternator and found battery voltage was not reaching the alternator terminal.

Same wiring route on this one, but i had checked the continuity between alternator terminal and pozitive term on batt and all is good.

I'm still waiting the parcel with alt.

Cheers and thanks for help.

[Nervoptik]

Hi guys, just came back to let you know what happened with charging problems.

ALTERNATOR ... that was the problem. As i pointed before, i've seen a crack in the alternator casing. I went to carspares and got brand new aftermarket alternator for about 80 quid + old alternator in exchange.

All perfect. Charging is at 14.4V every time.

Now it's time to check an older ABS problem on a new thread :)

Edited September 16, 2017 by Nervoptik