14v, 12v under heavy load?

[BristolSam16v]

RE other post about flashing battery light and stereo cutting out (can't find the post)

I measured the voltage across the battery, on startup with no load it was tiny bit over 14v.

When I turned on the hazards,stereo, front/rear foglights,rear demister, full beams ... basically every switch i could find it went down to 12v.

How do those sound??

[DaveH]

That sounds ok, it could be an intermittent thing, when my alternator was faulty it would be fine for a while with those sort of readings but when the light was flashing it was running at 10v just idling and wouldnt restart after being run, anything over 14v at idle is ok though so is it faulting at the mo with those readings?

[bass_direct]

RE other post about flashing battery light and stereo cutting out (can't find the post)

I measured the voltage across the battery, on startup with no load it was tiny bit over 14v.

When I turned on the hazards,stereo, front/rear foglights,rear demister, full beams ... basically every switch i could find it went down to 12v.

How do those sound??

that's not good? it should hold charge with all those on, should be close to 14!, my brand new alternator is something like 13.4 with all those on but quickly goes to 14+ when revved.

[BristolSam16v]

Didn't try revving it, so could it be a shit earth or more likely a shit alternator?

[bass_direct]

if on idle, it's a shade over 14v, then it's probably a fookered wire somewhere

on jay s's car, he was running same as you, but we made a proper live feed for it (old wire was knackered) and now it's running spot on..

check the wires first etc

[Purple]

I measured the voltage across the battery, on startup with no load it was tiny bit over 14v.

When I turned on the hazards,stereo, front/rear foglights,rear demister, full beams ... basically every switch i could find it went down to 12v.

When did you last change the battery? A weak battery can also make the car behave like that.

[BristolSam16v]

Its a heavy duty battery 065 is it? changed it start of the year/end of last year?

So could be a buggered wire from the alternator? Any definate way of checking if the alternator itself is fcked?