Whats your alternator charging at....

G day guys,

Was just wondering if my alternator is ok cos i have seen that the navara alternators are proned the failure. mine charges at around 14 volts but can sometimes fluctuate between 13.5 to 14.5. ive also heard that some alternators charge higher to overcome voltage drop in the system, is this true or is mine just f%#@ed. also if it is gone is it worth putting a 90amp GU alternator in. Cheers guys.

Matty

that seems normal to me
have you any accessories you are running eg battery fridge

no accessories running but the normal in car stuff, eg radio headlights and gauges. thats about it, nothing power thirsty.

Matty

Mine charges at 14.2V going by my built in volt metre in my Greddy turbo timer.

Dave.

nothing wrong with your charge rate you will find as your revs pick up your charge rate will increase to a max of about 14.5 average charge is about 13.5 to 14.5 if you are charging above or below that then there may be something wrong but as i said yours sounds fine

marvin3 said:

nothing wrong with your charge rate you will find as your revs pick up your charge rate will increase to a max of about 14.5 average charge is about 13.5 to 14.5 if you are charging above or below that then there may be something wrong but as i said yours sounds fine

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Cheers guys, by the sounds of it mine must be fine. ive never had a vehicle that charged that high so i was not quite sure.

Matty, i changed my alternator about 3 years ago to a 90amp, i just checked it , and i am running at 14.45v at idle and 14.1v with lights on at idle.

cheers,

Lance

Guys..... Found this post so I thought I'd revive it instead of creating a new one.....


I've been watching what my Ute charges at and IMO it's a little too low at it's MAX. I realise that the charging voltages are usually also temperature related but mines only ever seems to reach a max of 14.1volts. With modern Calcium based batteries these days, that's not higher enough to keep the battery fully charged. I know u will never get your battery 100% charged off your alternator but I still would like to get a bit higher charging voltage than I do now.....

Our 150 Prado had a similar story. From factory they limit the charging rate for various reasons but this has a effect when charging 2 batteries.... but one smart fellow I came across had a special ALT Fuse made up where within the fuse was the fuse element + a small Diode in series. With Diodes there is a voltage drop across them and when he replaced his original ALT fuse with this device, he increase his charging voltage by .5volt. I bought one a few years ago for the Prado and it works a treat....

Has anyone done something similar to their cars to help increasing the charging voltage??

rob

what u need to find out is what the charge rate is at the back of the alternator. you can get a charge rate, at the battery, of 13.5 and at the alternator its 15.0 for example. if the voltage differance is greater than 1 volt, then you need to run a new power wire to the main power bolt of the alternator (6mm wire at least if not bigger, but don't go nuts and run starter cable (starter cable is huge, expensive and not very flexible)). make sure you fuse it (same amp rating as stock fuse).