Luke Johnson
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2005
- Messages
- 50
- Reaction score
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- Age
- 39
- Location
- Marion
- Members Ride
- VY Calais Series II (Oct 2003) Supercharged V6
The alternator died on the VY this week - fairly typical failure, "Check Alternator" came on dash screen, then two days later car basically stopped. I had noticed that the old alternator seemed a bit unusually hot to touch, but I thought that this was because it had failed.
So I bought a new alternator ($263 trade price from Sprint), put it in no worries and now, maybe a minute after starting the car the alternator feels really hot again. It can be touched, but you couldn't keep your fingers on it for more than a couple of seconds. The area where it mounts onto the engine in general is cold, but the new alternator armiture / casing is hot. I have a slightly dodgy multimeter, it reads 14 volts across the battery when the car is stopped, and about 16.5 volts when the engine is running (ie. alternator is charging).
It seems there is a problem somewhere else that is causing this high current flow through the alternator. I believe the regulator in the VY is built into the alternator, so it shouldn't really be the regulator? Unless it has blown since putting it in? I have checked wiring behind the alternator and everything seems ok - no obvious shorts.
Some of the relays under bonnet and under the steering wheel are a little brown? And a couple of the relays under steering wheel also feel a bit warm.
Any ideas what could be causing this?
So I bought a new alternator ($263 trade price from Sprint), put it in no worries and now, maybe a minute after starting the car the alternator feels really hot again. It can be touched, but you couldn't keep your fingers on it for more than a couple of seconds. The area where it mounts onto the engine in general is cold, but the new alternator armiture / casing is hot. I have a slightly dodgy multimeter, it reads 14 volts across the battery when the car is stopped, and about 16.5 volts when the engine is running (ie. alternator is charging).
It seems there is a problem somewhere else that is causing this high current flow through the alternator. I believe the regulator in the VY is built into the alternator, so it shouldn't really be the regulator? Unless it has blown since putting it in? I have checked wiring behind the alternator and everything seems ok - no obvious shorts.
Some of the relays under bonnet and under the steering wheel are a little brown? And a couple of the relays under steering wheel also feel a bit warm.
Any ideas what could be causing this?
