Can a alternator drain your battery?
Can a alternator drain your battery?
Even while your car is off, your battery provides power to things like the clock, the radio, and the alarm system. These things shouldn’t have a major impact on your battery. But when the engine is off, the alternator can’t recharge the battery, allowing little electrical mishaps to drain your battery entirely.
Can a battery run down with no alternator?
An alternator that’s not providing enough power can allow a battery to run down. According to Prestolite electric, an alternator producing less than 13.8 volts of power at idle is not producing enough current to charge the battery fully and needs to be replaced.
What causes an alternator to go over base voltage?
If you are getting more than 2 volts above base voltage, most likely your alternator is over-charging the battery or the battery is faulty. Other potential problems are a faulty voltage regulator or a problem in the charging system wiring.
What should I do if my alternator keeps dying?
The alternator is essentially a generator and it keeps your battery charged while supplying additional electrical power for the other systems in the vehicle. If you have a new alternator and your battery keeps dying on you, then there’s definitely a problem that you’re going to need to look into.
What should the voltage be on a bat alternator?
Measure the voltage across the battery and the big bat alternator terminal to alternator case. There are two things that you are looking for. The charging voltage should be between 13.9v to 14.4v. Also the voltage at the battery and the voltage at the alternator should be within 0.5v of each other.
What happens when the alternator on a Chevy Aveo goes bad?
As the alternator can no longer supply your Aveo with an adequate power supply, it will begin to feed off of the reserve in the battery. Once this battery reserve hits a certain level, the vehicle will begin to run erratically and will no longer start when the key is turned.
An alternator that’s not providing enough power can allow a battery to run down. According to Prestolite electric, an alternator producing less than 13.8 volts of power at idle is not producing enough current to charge the battery fully and needs to be replaced.
If you are getting more than 2 volts above base voltage, most likely your alternator is over-charging the battery or the battery is faulty. Other potential problems are a faulty voltage regulator or a problem in the charging system wiring.
What are the symptoms of a bad alternator?
Outside of the battery warning light, a dead battery is the most common symptom of a bad alternator. As the alternator can no longer supply your Aveo with an adequate power supply, it will begin to feed off of the reserve in the battery.
