Alternator, Battery, or something else?
07-21-2015, 10:19 AM
#1
Alternator, Battery, or something else?
Had a funny occurrence Sunday after getting back from taking the dogs for a walk and was hoping to confirm my thoughts.
Parked and with the engine running went to put the windows up. There was a draw down on the power to the point where the Edge programmer blanked and my head unit cut out. Stopped putting the windows up and shut down. I then put the windows up one at a time and they went up but not full speed like normal.
The truck sat parked until last night when I checked, voltage at the battery read 12.1 VDC with the engine off and 14.0 VDC with the engine running.
Decided to drive it to work today (about 19 miles). Switched one of the displays on the Edge unit to voltage reading and saw 14.0-14.2 until about half way here then it dropped to 12.0 hovering there plus or minus a couple tenths. Got to work and when I went to put the windows up the voltage dropped to 11.5.
My initial thought was alternator but the battery is far from new. Could a weak battery cause this?
I'm planning on taking it to a local parts house that has recently been bought by Advanced but don't want to trust on their advice alone.
Thanks in advance...
Parked and with the engine running went to put the windows up. There was a draw down on the power to the point where the Edge programmer blanked and my head unit cut out. Stopped putting the windows up and shut down. I then put the windows up one at a time and they went up but not full speed like normal.
The truck sat parked until last night when I checked, voltage at the battery read 12.1 VDC with the engine off and 14.0 VDC with the engine running.
Decided to drive it to work today (about 19 miles). Switched one of the displays on the Edge unit to voltage reading and saw 14.0-14.2 until about half way here then it dropped to 12.0 hovering there plus or minus a couple tenths. Got to work and when I went to put the windows up the voltage dropped to 11.5.
My initial thought was alternator but the battery is far from new. Could a weak battery cause this?
I'm planning on taking it to a local parts house that has recently been bought by Advanced but don't want to trust on their advice alone.
Thanks in advance...
07-21-2015, 10:53 AM
#2
Senior Member
You can always go to advance and have them test the alternator and battery to find out which one is in need of being replaced.
07-21-2015, 10:25 PM
#3
Senior Member
I suspect that the brushes on the voltage regulator in the alternator are almost worn down. I replaced my voltage regulator for about $20. If you are fortunate enough that the issue occurs while it is being tested it should be able to tell you if it is the voltage regulator.
07-22-2015, 05:50 AM
#4
Mark
iTrader: (1)
Battery is far from new... How old is it ? That would be my first guess..
07-22-2015, 09:24 AM
#5
I suspect that the brushes on the voltage regulator in the alternator are almost worn down. I replaced my voltage regulator for about $20. If you are fortunate enough that the issue occurs while it is being tested it should be able to tell you if it is the voltage regulator.
Found your video
07-22-2015, 12:04 PM
#6
My alternator went at 73K miles, I was going to replace the voltage regulator but when I took the alternator apart the slip ring had a deep grove on it, it was too deep that the new VG may not making good contact.
I decided to rebuilt the whole alternator.
I found a rebuild kit on Ebay for Ford 6G alternator, unfortunately the kit is made in China
. I went ahead and rebuilt mine with the exception of the bearings, because the old bearings still felt good besides I don't trust bearings that are made in China.
The amount of time spent on re-search tooling and rebuild time I could have gone to work and buy two brand new made in China on Ebay.
However, with all that said it was pride and kind of fun to fix things by yourself and saving the old one from being trash.
I decided to rebuilt the whole alternator.
I found a rebuild kit on Ebay for Ford 6G alternator, unfortunately the kit is made in China
. I went ahead and rebuilt mine with the exception of the bearings, because the old bearings still felt good besides I don't trust bearings that are made in China.The amount of time spent on re-search tooling and rebuild time I could have gone to work and buy two brand new made in China on Ebay.
However, with all that said it was pride and kind of fun to fix things by yourself and saving the old one from being trash.