Just driven our new van for the first time home (130 miles) and noticed after around 100 miles into the journey, the lights were going dim, no radio and indicators staying on but very weak?????? Alternator duff?????? Please help!!!
Does sound like the battery was low on power. Could be a duff alternator or could be that the battery is not holding charge and is on it's way out. If you have a voltmeter put it on the battery terminals, start the van and get someone to rev it a bit. If the reading is over 13v then the alternator is passing charge and it's probably the battery, if it's less than 12v or so then the alternator isn't passing charge so it's likely the alternator. First steps I'd suggest
you have checked the fan belt is tight and not slipping? also don't swap the alternator until you get the battery checked - that's a lot cheaper.
Cheers guys! Could it be the alternator belt??? I haven't looked yet as it's so dark! Not spoken to the previous keeper yet but he did tell me it fad a new generator?? Could he mean the alternator???? Kinda taken the shine right off it!
yeah generator/alternator same thing, check the belt check the battery then report back, it's not a difficult problem to sort mate.
wise words from rickyroo 1 check the earth point from battery to the body they have a tendency to rust at that point then check the earth from body to the engine check the battery it should read a min of 12 volts then check the out put from the alternator it should read 14.5 (or there about) when you rev the engine these old vans tend to do strange things if there is an earthing fault it is also pos that you may have a prob with a live wire feed back at some point do you have probs starting the van from cold
Cheers chris! It is odd, when I first got into the van I noticed the radio would not power up, I then noticed that the radio plug wasnt plugged in and was dangling down from behind the dash-very odd? I obviously plugged it back in and the radio came on? Sounds to me like poor radio wiring? I'll try and run the van tomorrow with it unplugged!
Modern radios use power all the time, it may have been disconnected to stop battery drain! if you can wire it to a leasure battery so you can use it on site without worrying about the main battery :smiley_dog_kiss:
Slipping fan belt is quite likely as a problem - on one occasion the screech from the engine bay of the slipping belt told me there was a problem. It sounded like a water pump and so it couldnt be that. Of course this also indicates the cooling fan is not running at 100% speed. Just fitted a new belt a few hundred miles back and as it went from rough to smooth with use it slackened off. Noticed that it was wobbling about a bit this morning so moved a shim from one side to the other of the pulley and now its just right again. And radio backups flattening batteries is a common problem. But if you have a healthy alternator or dynamo and well adjusted fan belt and you use the bus regularly it shouldnt be enough to drain the battery - it should take weeks rather than overnight. If the battery seems to go flat overnight regularly it could be a symptom of sulphating. The problem there that if you let car batteries go flat and leave them for any time then you might as well go and buy a new one as they lose capacity very quickly as the plates sulphate up as they are sitting in the most concentrated acid. A charged battery has weak acid in it. (Not as bad as SLA gel batteries where one flattening lasting a few days will kill them totally, and when you go to charge them they bulge and vent and do other nasties) . I
