A bit of a weird charging problem
I changed the regulator on the car maybe a couple of years ago.
On fitting the regulator, the most it would push out is about 13.5 volts which even though low I left it and decieded to look for the cause elsewhere when I had time.
Okay, finally remembered and had a bit of time on my hands since the middle of november (lost my piggin job
) I decieded to look into this last week.
First things first, with the battery holding a steady 12 volts over night I started it up (fired 1st time / no problems) and got the meter out.
I've got 12.7 at the battery. Also plugged the laptop in and that also gave a reading of 12.7 volts too.
Because the car hasn't had a run for a while, I took it upto York and back (about 100 miles with a few back roads thrown in) for a bit of a blast (heaters / radio / lights off.
Got home before lighting up time so popped the bonnet and checked the voltage across the battery to find at idle, its now pushing out a more healthy 13.8 volts
First question is ............ Whats the hell is going on here ??
Second question is ............. With the normal running output of the alternator at around 14.0 volts, how is this varying voltage going to affect the various systems on the car ?
Reason is, over the last year or so ive had a slow lambda sensor fault triggering a fault code when doing around 50mph / 5th gear with a very light pedel.
Also I have had problems with the vapouriser holding a steady pressure reading.
Is this volts drop possibly the cause of these little gremlins ?