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Date:         Tue, 04 Feb 1997 22:27:02 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Tonya Pope <galba@premier.net>
Subject:      alternator blues

Hi all--

Well it would appear that my previous post about the freaky alt. and OXS lights was indeed due to my alternator. It is still working, but not getting the battery a good charging. I have not been back there to look at it yet. Kind souls have pointed out that it could just be a corroded connection (I hope!)

Problem originated last Thursday with aforementioned lights coming on together intermittently then going back off again for a while. This morning the lights pretty much stayed on the time, but very dimly. Then, while at LSU, van refused to start and I had to get campus police to jump it off. Then it behaved even freakier!

For about 1 mile from the spot I was parked at, I had NO POWER. Van idled okay but backfired when given gas and really just didn't want to go. I crept through campus (fortunately, they like cars to go slow!), then, all of a sudden, power returned. If my fuel guage was accurate, I got about 4 gallons to the mile during this episode.

I proceeded to get the kids from school and come straight home (approximately 1.5 hours of driving--1 hour worth at highway speeds) without stopping. During this 1.5 hours, the coolant temp guage never got past the bottom white part (i.e van ran very cold--supposedly). However, while I was stopped in front of one school, with the engine running, the fan came on. So it obviously was warm, it's the guage that was malfunctioning. Fuel consumption on the way home was normal.

Another freakitude--blinkers don't want to blink. Either left or right, they just stayed on. Emergency blinkers DID blink though--although this was with the engine off.

Once home, I pulled into the driveway, put it in park so that I could get the mail out of the box. Got back in and, again, NO POWER. Eventually died there. Since the battery didn't have enough go juice, couldn't restart it either. Anyway, I had to push it 50 yards towards the garage so that my husband could pull in when he got home. To be honest, I only got it maybe 20 yards by myself--husband helped push it the rest of the way when he arrived. We have a gravel (kinda--mostly dirt nowadays) driveway and the pinecones kept giving me trouble (i.e. getting the van to roll over them!). And, yes, I was bright enough to take it out of park when I was doing the pushing!

Anyway--to the question--obviously my alternator isn't charging the battery sufficiently. I took a multimeter to the battery and it read just under 12v while I was waiting for campus police. Since battery wasn't completely dead, I'm assuming that the alternator is getting SOME charging done, just not enough. With all the freakiness in the electrical system, I think that all this caused the sensors to wack out their signals to the puter causing my power outage (and sudden thirst for fuel--I wasn't kidding about 4 gallons to the mile!). Could the boost off have caused any damage? Specifically to the coolant temp sensor for the guage? The police used this booster pack thing--didn't hook me to a live running car or anything. Didn't start the first time I tried with the booster pack, but did the second.

I honestly don't think anything got fried, I think that the alternators poor charging (either due to faulty alternator, bad bushings, or bad connections) is causing all the signals to be off.

As I am without a bently, a detailed explaination of what I'm supposed to look for would be appreciated. I saw a number of wires going into the top of what I believe to be the alternator (boy, does that sound like a helpless female or what?). The alternator is the thingie that has the alternator belt, right?! On the right as you look at the engine from the rear kinda next to the air box. Are the wires on top the ones I should inspect?

After all my previous trevails, I know the coolant system, vacuum and FI system pretty good, but I'm two notches below a novice as far as everything else is concerned!

Thanks so much everyone for all your help! Tonya 87 Vanagon GL Wolfs 74 S. Beetle


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