VS v6 owners check this out

ok after not checking mine i went to go to a lan last night but my car wouldnt start, so i went out and got some jumpers, started her up and made my way to mates place [ about 4km ] and she dies at a set of lights, left it on the side of the road for the night, come back and loand behold the alternater wire came off of its terminal, corroded to **** and the insulation was shot [ brittle ] My car has done 230,000, S1 vs'96 so i got bulma back home with some amplifyer power cable but i checked it before killing the engine and the battery end wasnt unusually warm but the alternater end was pretty warm. [ total of about 5mins on the road @ 60km/h, 30º day, aircon off stereo off.

the wire was a bit thinner than the one that buggered up so im thinking i need to get some proper replacement gauge wire and re-crip both ends making a new cable, my question is what would i be looking at for a new length of whire and where would be the best place to get some decent stuff, i wouldnt mind forking out to make sure it wont happen again in a hurry.

sorry to grave dig a thread but didnt want to make a new one linking to this when i may as well of just posted here.

any help or information would be muchly appreciated, thankyou.

 

An Auto Electrician will be able to assist you with the wire + crimps you need.

btw thx for bumping this thread up. I remember reading it before I got my car and this is something I haven't checked over yet.

Cheers,

 

Anyone got an exhaust pipe? Another fault perhaps is the baffler breaking down. Rattles heaps now, and I have a big split behind the muffler.

>anarky

 

BLOODY HELL !!! mine show signs of burn back on the wire aswell @ 125,000 km

It must be a design fault that the wire is not of suitable guage or is too long to handle the amperage the alternater discharges...causing heat build up in the wire and causing and the connection to loosen over time.

Mine has burnt back about 5cm and the plastic wire tidy stuff covering the wires has melted fusing to the wire coating...the connection isn't loose however.

Hmmm...I dont know if I'll be a tight arse now and cut the wire back and buy another lug or go to the sparkies for some heavier guage wire...:unsure:

Anyhow this thread ought to be made sticky as this looks like a common thing occuring that could be deadly if combined with a fuel leak from the injector lines.

Thanks for the headsup markovr !!! :thumbsup:

 

Is that why my battery always dies every few months? :|

>anarky

 

well you could check the wire to make sure it isnt a dodgy connection but the car can drain the battery in about 5minutes so basicly you'll be driving and the headlights will be dim as all hell and then it just stop when the revs get low [ in my case i was braking for a yellow light ]

that for check your alternater regulater, the battery fluidlevels the charging wire, the terminals and the posts etc etc, theres a few places where it can give up really.

 

The apparant problem is starting it. A new battery will crank over the engine very fast, and it fires quick. An older battery (1mth+) will not. I know the battery is fine. Perhaps the starter solenoid is worn? Perhaps if it is, it can be draining more power when it gets hot.

>anarky

 

Ive had exactly the same thing twice on my vs statesman s2 v6!!! Initially the alternator light flickered unitl the next day the charging cable broke off. I only discovered it by accident while taking the engine cover off. As i work in an electrical industry, i used double 16mm2 insulated flex cable similar to arc welding type to renew the entire cable back to the battery (nb: automotive cable sizes are different to industrial electrical). The double insulation can withstand greater temperatures than standard automotive type....so far so good!

 

I should give this a go. What sort of economy do you get? I just want to get some idea of how well or unwell my engine is running. All please reply.

>anarky

 

ok i had my cable replaced with some battery lead from supercheap and two squash terminals from repco and was running great however i came home pretty quickly [ read 40+ on a couple of corners ] and my battery light came on so i killed the radio and kept the revs up which got me home [ car was dipping in revs here and there ] and when i got home i turned it off and popped the bonnet, lo and behold the cable came out of its terminal at the alternater end [ thank GOD it didnt spark! ] so im wondering what can i do to properly re-affix the cable, im aiming for "overkill" so it wont come out unless i do something whimsical to make it come out. help!?

 

:angel: Thanx for the great tip! Ill be getting my VS looked at now. :thumbsup:

 

thanks lol mine did this on tuesday lucky i just started the car so i wasnt driving but mine fixed its self so my auto elec couldnt find what did it, i thought it was something i did the day before with my deck.

 

A couple of other questions.

What is the recommended spark plug gap? The workshop manual recommends about 1.5mm. The packet says 1.5mm. People suggest 0.7mm. At the moment I am running .85mm. It's going fine.

Plug leads. Does anyone else find they are prematurely (under 20,000km) doing in plug leads 1 and 6 at the coil? I've done just over 38.000km since I bought it two years ago, and have replaced these two leads twice, and the whole set recently.

>anarky

 

On a very hot day my car stalled like 5 times and eventually refused to fire up(cranks but doesn't fire). I ran a diagnostics test and it came up:

52 System Voltage High -auto trans code
57 Injector Voltage Monitor Fault
92 Low Speed Cooling Fan.

Upon resetting the battery(removing negative terminal and recconecting it) the car started up no problem first click and the codes were all cleared it drove fine until 2 days later it stalled exactly the same. Everything shuts off, radio turns off only the engine light stays on and car again refuses to click over until you reset the battery only now even after resetting the battery the car surges and accelerates unevenly especially on a hot day. Could it be the wire behind the alternator getting loose or worn particulartly on hot days? It appears fine just by looking at it from what I can tell.

 

This was May. In Melbourne. Not so hot. Mother's Day 2005, actually. Peak hour traffic.


>anarky

 

Had my VS Berlina for three weeks and the same fault happened to me (160,000km). Fortunately there was a 6 month warranty thrown in the deal at purchase, so was covered. Didn't realise it was this common. Had to replace the batt a month later.

 

Alternator Light ON!

An interesting read.

The alternator warning light on my VS S2 came on the other night. Parked it for the time being, and driving my VY S2 until I solve it.

Will check this first.

 

Previously i wrote........Ive had exactly the same thing twice on my vs statesman s2 v6!!! Initially the alternator light flickered unitl the next day the charging cable broke off. I only discovered it by accident while taking the engine cover off. As i work in an electrical industry, i used double 16mm2 insulated flex cable similar to arc welding type to renew the entire cable back to the battery (nb: automotive cable sizes are different to industrial electrical). The double insulation can withstand greater temperatures than standard automotive type....so far so good!

well guess what...it happend again today, my wife was stranded with 2 kids in 35deg heat. This time the cable sort of outlasted but the bakelite insulation between the cable nuts and the body of the alternator had crumbled due to heat causeing the nuts to loosen and cause arcing..ive renewed the nuts and insulation today and now the atlerator decided to blow up...filling the engine bay with white smoke...detenation big time!!!! more money to spend i guess.