Genxer
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I’ve had a few incidents over the last year where I found that the voltage showed below 12V. Last night I went for a drive and I got some kind of message about low battery and it switched to AM radio. I decided to cut the drive short and go home. Turned out to be a good idea. My voltage showed 11.2V, then at one point 10.7. As I pulled into the driveway the electric assist stopped working on my steering but I managed to wrangle it into the garage. Close call.
So I took the battery out and put it on a charger and it was discharged badly. I ended up taking it the store and letting them check it out. The battery passed all checks and they charged it for me. I took it back home and started the car up. Ok, getting good voltage… at first. Then I decided to connect my volt meter at the battery. With engine running I get 12.1V with the a/c off. With a/c on it goes to 11.7. Maybe a bad alternator? I never got a message about the charging system, just a text message on the screen about the battery.
I decided to look at it, so after taking the air box out I noticed a bit of caked on crud and a light film of oil on the alternator. So I went to trace the source. As it turned out, I had loose valve cover bolts. The corner one right over the alt was screwed out 1/8”! I’m guessing they didn’t get it tight at the factory? Weird.
So a couple of questions, is there any other check that I can do to verify it’s the alternator? I only have 50k miles on this car because it only sees action maybe once a week. It’s not my DD so I have the luxury of time to tinker. I did consider taking the alternator off and doing a thorough cleaning (little to no cost). I’m thinking a replacement is more than likely the solution. Also, any tricks or tips to removing the square plug on the alternator?
Also: my OBD2 scanner showed stored or pending codes.
So I took the battery out and put it on a charger and it was discharged badly. I ended up taking it the store and letting them check it out. The battery passed all checks and they charged it for me. I took it back home and started the car up. Ok, getting good voltage… at first. Then I decided to connect my volt meter at the battery. With engine running I get 12.1V with the a/c off. With a/c on it goes to 11.7. Maybe a bad alternator? I never got a message about the charging system, just a text message on the screen about the battery.
I decided to look at it, so after taking the air box out I noticed a bit of caked on crud and a light film of oil on the alternator. So I went to trace the source. As it turned out, I had loose valve cover bolts. The corner one right over the alt was screwed out 1/8”! I’m guessing they didn’t get it tight at the factory? Weird.
So a couple of questions, is there any other check that I can do to verify it’s the alternator? I only have 50k miles on this car because it only sees action maybe once a week. It’s not my DD so I have the luxury of time to tinker. I did consider taking the alternator off and doing a thorough cleaning (little to no cost). I’m thinking a replacement is more than likely the solution. Also, any tricks or tips to removing the square plug on the alternator?
Also: my OBD2 scanner showed stored or pending codes.
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I had the “service charging system” warning blink quickly whilst going through the car wash on two occasions, and have ceased using car washes….then out of the blue in a startup, got the message and was getting a solid 11.7v on a two week old battery, the center stack said something to the effect of “shutting down non essential electronics.” Then after shutting the car down, it said “Powering down audio system to save battery.” Hooked up my maintainer, battery was showing 32% charge. Mine is PROBABLY the alternator, but i see plenty of posts related to the 3 wire pigtail being a cause of failure due to the lack of strain relief in the harness on these cars, so ordered one as well to hopefully achieve a fist time fix 🫠 So i don’t gave a smoking gun fix as of yet, i’d suggest checking the pigtail first, as yours could be as easy as a $30 fix. And as for your oil leak…..my alt has dampness all over it as well, my valve covers were just as loose as yours when i purchased the car a litte over a year ago. Common on these engines with the composite covers. Perhaps alternator killer, not sure about that. Did pick up a set of aluminum GT 500 covers, so should be a non issue for me going forward, as there are practically double the hold down bolts. Good luck, i’ll be following your post 🫡
