Yes that's right the light is back on again !! After changing the voltage regulator on Satuday all was well during the 50 or so miles I've done since Sat afternoon. Tonight however, after starting up the battery light is coming back on again however I suspect this time for different reason, certainly the symptoms are different. When the engine is at idle all is well with no battery light however if I give it a slight rev to circa 1500 rpm and above I get the battery light coming on, this dies out again as soon as the revs drop below 1500rpm again. At first I thought it was simply the fan belt despite not getting any squealing noises however with some further investigation I'm pretty sure thats not it. When I turn the lights on I can get to 2500rpm before the battery light comes on and if I then turn on the aircon fan, front and rear fog lights and also turn up the stereo I can get to 4500 rpm before the light comes on. I also notice that as the rev's get higher the lights and dashboard lights get brighter. Am I right in thinking this sounds like the voltage regulator again ? IE this time getting too many volts instead of too few ? Any suggestions on how to confirm this and how to rectify the problem other than putting in another voltage regulator ? Any help would be greatly appreciated once again....
Did you change the rectifier as well? What condition were the brushes in? Rebuilding an alternator is more than just changing the regulator out. Have a good look at your battery cables. Make sure they are connected properly. Be sure that the negative is grounded properly, and that the cable running to the starter from the battery is hooked up properly. But then again, I don't remember if you put in a new battery or not? It could be that your old battery has indeed had it.
Check your battery voltage with the key off; should read 12V. Check alternator voltage engine running, should be 14V or a bit more. Could be you have a broken wire causing intermittent contact. In most cases, the alternator is tickled to charge through the 'Alt' light.
Thanks chaps. I had a rectifier also but it was slightly too big to fit, the metal contacts on the side that the screws go into stood out just a little too far and I would have risked damaging the alternator by forcing them on. Brushes were in good condition with plenty of wear left so no problems there. Checked all cable at the same time, mine has a bit of an odd setup where the alternator lead goes direct to the starter motor which then links to the + terminal in the rear of the car. You can see the setup in the top left of this diagram:- http://www.eurospares.co.uk/partTable.asp?M=1&Mo=434&A=1&B=23685&S= Didnt change the battery but its only about 6 months old and holding a full charge with no problem. I'll try your suggestion tonight Darolls and I'll also see if there is any AC voltage being generated which would be a sign that the rectifier has had it! Cheers for your help guys.....very much appreciated.
Right, the plot thickens !!! I've just gone to stick my multimeter on the car to check voltages etc however the battery is completely flat, and boy do I mean flat....circa 3V! Its done this in circa 16 hours which to me says there is a serious current drain / short somewhere as the battery had plenty of juice in it last night! This is reminiscent of how the problem started in the first place, a couple of Saturdays ago I fitted window booster box's into each door but left the car until the following Tuesday due to illness and everything was fine (started first time). When I went to start the car the next night however (Wed) the battery was totally flat and once I did get the car running again the battery light was coming on. After being fully charged, I've had no probs with the battery until today again. This leads me to think that when I fitted the booster box's that I've disturbed something in the door that's causing an intermittant short / power drain, the windows aren't live without the ignition on so I'm discounting them and I'm confident my connections are all sound. My next thought is that it could be the door lights staying on or central locking perhaps ? Any views / thoughts / suggestions ?? Perhaps my battery is knackered after all but it seems to be taking and holding a charge for days on end no problem other than 2 occasions where its gone totally (and I mean totally flat) overnight which is far too quick to loose a charge in my opinion......
I'll give the battery a try though I suspect there's something more to it, I cant see a battery holding a charge fine for weeks with no sign of discharge then suddenly loosing all its charge (to the point of 3V remaining?) in 16 hours... then again stranger things have happened and perhaps it is simply a dodgy cell that many have suggested!!! Anyway, after a blast on the charger I managed to get her started up again this evening and have checked the voltage readings, at 1000 RPM its circa 12.3V, at 2000RPM circa 13V, and then up towards 4000-5000 RPM I'm seeing 14V which is roughly where my battery light starts to come on ? Obviously the more electric's I turn on the lower the readings are though not by much....do these readings sound about right or is 14V getting a bit too high ? (bearing in mind the battery didnt have a huge amount of charge in it) Also when I switch off I monitored the voltmeter (plugged into ciggy lighter!) and the voltage drops off to circa 11.8V for a second or two until I hear a click from the passenger footwell and then returns back to circa 12V. I tried this a few times and on a couple of occasions I didn't get the click after switch off and the voltmeter stayed at 11.8ish. This sounds suspiciously like a relay sticking on and drawing some current, any idea which one it could be? Hopefully I'll get the to bottom of this as my first few weeks of Ferrari ownership have been somewhat unnerving!
I know little of this, but from the other posts on the window boost, they re-route a circuit or such, somewhere, to get extra power[?]: Might try disconnecting the window boosts and see if the problem goes away. 2cents/ er....what's that in AU$
Okay, are you sure you got the correct regulator? You did make sure it was a Regitar, and not a Transpo? The Transpo is in the factory alternatpor and is a piece of junk in my opinion. If your battery is okay, which I'm guessing it isn't, but if it is, then it sounds like the regulator is prematurely cutting off the current to the battery. So you may need to get a different regulator. When the light comes on are you seeing a drop in the voltage going to the battery? If so then i think you may have gotten a bunk regulator.
Hi Ernie, thanks for your response. I think your right actually and that I've been sold a pup on the regulator front. I gave them all the part numbers and requested a Regitar part. What they gave me however came in a different box but they assured me it was the same part. I went to take the rectifier back yesterday, which didnt fit, and enquired a bit more strongly about the origin of the parts. It turns out that they dont really know much about them other than that their supplier just buys them in from somewhere and sticks them in their own box. (Welcome to the UK!) With regards to the voltage it doesnt seem to drop out at all even when the light comes on at approx 14V, I'm wondering if there is an overvoltage detection which is switching the lamp on somewhere in excess of 14V ? The more I think about the problems however the more I'm coming up with a scenario which I think fits.....sounds like 2 seperate problems to me, one which caused the other.... Car fine for first couple of weeks, no probs. Fitted window boosters then problems start (methinks I've disturbed something). I suspect its related to this sticking relay which I need to identify. Basically relay sticks for first time, flattens battery, I then jump start the car (not knowing any better) and the voltage regulator gives up the ghost at having to fully recharge the battery (last time any work was done on alternator was 3 years previous and its been on a conditioner since then until I got it). I change regulator with what turns out to be an inferior part which seems to work for a few days however the relay then sticks again and flattens battery again just to add to the confusion. I now have a conditioner on the battery so that should take car of future problems but in the meantime I need to get the correct alt parts and identify the sticky relay which shouldnt be too difficult. Now the hard part is tracking down a supplier of suitable quality parts in the UK.....I'll let you know how I get on with that in due course....
don't want to beat a dead horse, but in my troubleshooting exp, I would believe the environment changed with the addition of the window boosters. Seems you might want to try and disconnect those to see if environment can be restored before problem started. Almost seems like you are chasing subsequent problems...restore the original values then go from there....
The wondow box's basically only provide a shorter path to earth and dont actually boost the voltage or anything of the like. Since the windows are not live without the key in I cant see how they'd be able to drain the battery while the car is sitting? I actually left the car sitting overnight without the charger on it as a little experiment and it started no probs with plenty of charge so something is definately fishy! Anyway, I'm biting the bullit and getting the car looked at professionally, alas as much as I'd love to tinker I just really dont have the spare time at the moment (I hate it when work gets in the way). Will let you all know what the garage finds in due course..... PS Took the car out for a long (3hours) drive tonight and no problems at all other than the volage light flickering on above about 5000 RPM.....
with the car running and at idle the voltage on the battery terminals should be more than battery voltage,,,, something like between 13-14 volts or there abouts. with a load it should also be more than battery voltage..... measure the voltage without the car running. the whole idea behind the voltage regulator is just that to try and hold a constant voltage across the speed of the alternator and the load on the system. it shouldn't fluxuate too much, unless something is wrong. at least that's the way it works on my two cars.
Thanks Tam, yup there is something definately amiss. I checked the voltage of one of my other cars and it sits at 14.3V no matter what I do with the RPM so the voltage regulator has had it! I put it into the local auto-electrical 'specialist' yesterday for them to sort but thats becoming a nightmare already. I was recomended them by another 348 owner as the boss of the garage used to have a 348 himself and they did all the work on it. I phoned yesterday afternoon to see how it was coming along and their response was that I needed a new alternator as it was peaking at 18V at high revs! I told them I didnt want (or need) a new alternator and that it was the internals (voltage regulator) that was the problem. This was answered with the question "whats the voltage regulator, is that something inside the Alternator!?!" After a lengthy conversation and a direction to the348.com technical page he'd got the gist of it and agreed that I probably dont actually need a new alternator!! Sheesh ! I called today to get a further update and the response was that they had stripped the alternator but couldnt find any suitable parts however were going to source me a new battery as that was toast! (not surprised with 18V cooking it!). 20mins, an internet search and a couple of phone calls later and I'd managed to source the Regitar parts required which will be delivered to them early next week. I'm now at the point where I wish I'd just done it all myself as god only know what sort of bill they're going to come up with! Unfortunately the nearest Fezza dealer is a 2.5 hour drive away so that wasnt really an option in this case. Figers crossed this cures the problem! One thing they are going to do however is put a decent earth strap onto the Alternator as there isnt one at the moment...
