I'm having a little bit of a problem with my charging system. If the car is running it will show 14.5 volts at the battery. But when I start the car in the am it will not turn over. The battery will show 10.5 volts. The battery is new also. The alternator is providing the right amount of voltage to the battery. I really haven't driven the car as much as I used to since is cold outside. Is this just a weather issue? It gets in the hi 30's here at night and is usual 50's and 60's during the day.

 

The temp should not be effecting it that much. If run charge the battery, how long will it hold a charge? Or is it even holding a charge?

 

it barely hold the charge if I drive it once a day. during the day it holds fine its just over night when I have the problem. I check everything thinking there is something staying on while the car is shut but there isn't.

 

sounds like you have a drain. do you have a multi meter that reads amps and know how to use it?

 

If your voltmeter is showing 14.5 volts when the car is idling, that means it's trying to either make up for your battery's poor charge or a ground fault in your electrical system somewhere. I'd check the battery first; just how "new" is it?

 

14.5 is normal for a healthy non-pullied alt and battery.

 

Yep, you're right. Apologies, my bad.

For some reason, 14.5 volts at idle sounded a bit excessive to me...

 

actually I do have Greddy pulley's

My battery is about 2 moths old. The car has been sitting for 5 moths while I was deployed. My wife just started it once a week while I was gone. Drove it a few times too. I don't know if this is the actual problem.

 

I had the same problem in another thread. Did you relocate the battery? ...I did. The orblem turned out to be a bad ground. I used one of the studs for the Bose snake tube that was remove and sanded around it. I also used screw down terminals at the wnds of the wires instead of crimping ring ones.

 

no I haven't relocated the battery yet but it will be very soon one I install my Greddy FMIC. I keep that in mind though

 

I just recently had a problem with the battery and not starting. I was checking my PFC and it was showing a consistent 10.4 volts before starting. I took my battery to Pep Boy's and had them check the battery out. It was really low so they had to charge for 50 minutes to and then do a load test....it came out fine. BTW, I had to add distilled water to all of the cells because it was really low (my neighbor told me about this).

Anyways, I put the battery in and then checked the PFC and it said 12.0-12.2 volts and I was very excited! I started the car and it worked except I forgot to use the oil cooler clips and there was oil leaking out of my car! I shut it down to stop the oil from coming out and fixed that.

I go back to the car and tried to start but then the voltage was back to around 10-11 volts. I was like, huh?

My problem was that I forgot to connect the ground clip from the UIM to the frame of the car. It's on the passenger side of the engine near where the engine is hooked onto. As soon I plugged that in, 12 volts!

My problem now is that I flooded the car because of the oil leaking out issue. This never ends....

 

Well all my ground are actually upgraded and in place. Today is fine but lets see how it is in the am.

 

look if the batt is ok, it will need to be charged and load tested to be 100%, although the fact that it starts the car when it has a charge is a good sign, the alt is puting out good voltage, then you have a drain somewhere. if you dont know how to find it or dont have an multi meter then take it somewhere you trust and have them find it