alternator current draw

I've been having this problem of my battery being killed and I figured out
that my alternator is drawing current when the car is off. It'll basicallly
completely kill the battery overnight.
I figured it out by pulling fuses and checking voltage at the battery. I
finally got to the alternator and when I disconnected the two red wires
bolted too it the voltage at the battery jumped back up to 12.40 from 12.19.
I checked my other car and disconnecting the same wires didn't produce any
change in the voltage. \
The alternator's fairly new. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
-Andrew

DruG wrote:
> I've been having this problem of my battery being killed and I figured out
> that my alternator is drawing current when the car is off. It'll basicallly
> completely kill the battery overnight.
> I figured it out by pulling fuses and checking voltage at the battery. I
> finally got to the alternator and when I disconnected the two red wires
> bolted too it the voltage at the battery jumped back up to 12.40 from 12.19.
> I checked my other car and disconnecting the same wires didn't produce any
> change in the voltage. \
> The alternator's fairly new. Does anyone have any ideas?
> Thanks,
> -Andrew
>
>

You got a bad alternator. Specifically, the alternator that you got has
a bad diode or two.

If you replaced the alternator and then jump started the car with a dead
battery, that might have killed it. Of course don't mention this when
you take it back for a replacement. IMHO an alternator should be
designed to charge a dead battery without going Tango Uniform, but
obviously the manufacturers could care less what I think.

nate

--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
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Shorted diode. Could be that it still produces a voltage of about 12V (14 is
normal).

SFC

"DruG" > schreef in bericht
...
> I've been having this problem of my battery being killed and I figured out
> that my alternator is drawing current when the car is off. It'll
> basicallly completely kill the battery overnight.
> I figured it out by pulling fuses and checking voltage at the battery. I
> finally got to the alternator and when I disconnected the two red wires
> bolted too it the voltage at the battery jumped back up to 12.40 from
> 12.19. I checked my other car and disconnecting the same wires didn't
> produce any change in the voltage. \
> The alternator's fairly new. Does anyone have any ideas?
> Thanks,
> -Andrew
>