Aternator/Charging

[Oetker]

You can check if its the altenator or something else.
Take a lamp of 2.2 Watt.
Disconnect the wire from the L connection on the altenator (red/green).
Put a lamp of 12 Volt 2.2 Watt (standard charging lamp for most cars) on the L connection of the altenator, and connect the other connection on the lamp on a straight 12 Volt plus.
The lamp wil turn on with ignition on, and have to go out when the car runs.
If it still doesn't work youre altenator is the problem.

[Anders Dinsen]

Tha make of the thing was unreadable, but it said something like "cargo"..on it.

Well until it charges, it's just 'dead' cargo!
Any info from Simon?

[krede]

It works fine ONCE it has reached aprox 2000 rpm.. even at idle... it just has to have the one "kick" to wake up...

[krede]

Right... So I wrote Simon and got the reply that they had never had any such trouble with the 80 amp alternator.

So.. the fault is either with the alternator, or in my car.
And it HAS to be solved, as it is surely messing up my ECU.
I found this out as I was trying to wake up my Murena after it's 3 months in hibernation.
Even though it had been disconnected.. the battery didn't have the juice to start the engine.. so It had to get "mouth to mouth" by my old Citroën..
And As it turned out... when cranking with ~13-14 volts the engine fired up at once.

[Anders Dinsen]

Right... So I wrote Simon and got the reply that they had never had any such trouble with the 80 amp alternator.

So.. the fault is either with the alternator, or in my car.
And it HAS to be solved, as it is surely messing up my ECU.
I found this out as I was trying to wake up my Murena after it's 3 months in hibernation.
Even though it had been disconnected.. the battery didn't have the juice to start the engine.. so It had to get "mouth to mouth" by my old Citroën..
And As it turned out... when cranking with ~13-14 volts the engine fired up at once.

Welcome home!

Hmm, it could be your battery giving trouble for the alternator to start up properly. I know you would hate to go there, but maybe you could send your mother so noone will see you: THansen has batteries to fit our cars: P/N 990000000063 or 990000000078 depending on whether you have + on the right or left (mine has been converted from the standard).

[krede]

I seriously doubt that its the battery that's causing the trouble.

[Anders Dinsen]

I seriously doubt that its the battery that's causing the trouble.

Well you can try to swap batteries with your citroen, just for a test.

[krede]

I already did mate
 

[Anders Dinsen]

I already did mate
 

Well in that case (and if it's wired correctly, but I you have probably checked that TOO!), I suppose the alternator is going back to where it came from. It won't be the first time a new alternator is defective!

[krede]

Riiiiight... so this morning my baby started up by its own battery with no problems at all!!
Apart from the fact that the car now runs very poorly at low throttle settings..

I called and spoke to the guy who programmed the ECU for me , and he is pretty sure that its the throttle potentiometer that's gone out of alignment.
He says that he can easily guide me through the re-calibration... but I need my laptop to do it.
I'll have a go at it when it arrives from Kosovo. 

[Anders Dinsen]

Riiiiight... so this morning my baby started up by its own battery with no problems at all!!
Apart from the fact that the car now runs very poorly at low throttle settings..

I called and spoke to the guy who programmed the ECU for me , and he is pretty sure that its the throttle potentiometer that's gone out of alignment.
He says that he can easily guide me through the re-calibration... but I need my laptop to do it.
I'll have a go at it when it arrives from Kosovo. 

Cars are emotional machines!
Good luck on the throttle pot reprogramming. As the throttle pot is the only load sensing device on your car, I can imagine it has to be kept well calibrated.

[Oetker]

@ Krede
-----------
I changed my altenator for 1 out a 205 (see my other topic about it).
If I don't connect te wire that goes to the charging bulb, the altenator starts working if I rev above 1500 rpm.
Alfter that it works normal.
Maybe you have to look at that circuit.
Also the connector at the altenator can have the wires different.
The wire that was on L at the old altenator is green/red, but at my car it was changed in red.
Look carefull there because the other wire is + contact.
They both give + if contact is switched on, so a mistake is made easy.
If the wires are connected wrong way around, the car want stop running after contact is switched of.
Its funny to have the key in youre hand, while the car is still running.

During my job, I calculated 3,5 Watt in the bulb/resistor circuit.
It is possible that this is not suited for youre new Altenator.
I described a bit back in this topic how to test.
Take a bulb 12V 0,25A and put it between B+ and (L or D+)
The Altenator has to work normal if you do so.

[krede]

As it turned out, the "charging" issue had noting to do with my car running poorly.
So I don't really want to mess about with it any more.

I have replaced the battery with a more powerful "service free" one, since the smaller "standard" one has seen better days.
I tell myself that this has actually made starting up more trouble free.

[suffolkpete]

Your symptoms sound like a classic case of a fault in the warning lamp circuit.  The lamp is connected to the field windings on the rotor via the slip rings.  When the ignition is switched on, the field current is supplied via the lamp and the lamp lights.  This continues until the alternator is providing enough output to supply its own field current, at which point the light goes out because there's 12 volts on both sides.  The parallel resistor is there to ensure that the alternator will still function if the bulb fails.  In your case, this is not happening and you are relying on the small amount of residual magnetism in the rotor to kick things off, which is why it has to run up to 2000 rpm before anything happens.  If the external wiring in the lamp circuit is ok then the alternator is faulty.
Peter