Overheating and undercharging!

1990, 110 County with a 200TDi

Overheating.

Today I have been mainly changing my viscous fan!

I'll need a run out to see if it has had any effect. Everything else seems OK, for example I was out yesterday in it with my 10' trailer with 12 railway sleepers and it was getting warm (but not overheating). We stopped at one point and the top and bottom hoses were both nice and hot, but the fan was very wobbly on its mountings. Anyway we'll see what happens on the next long run.

Is there anyway of testing a viscous fan - is it like a thermostat, if I put it in a saucepan of boiling water, can I tell if it's "locked up"?

Undercharging

This has been worrying me for a while and whist my son had his 90 battery on charge I though I'd nick it to do some experiments!

These are the results:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

110 Defender Battery

All voltages measured across the battery terminals.

Engine stopped No load - 12.44v Headlights (dip) - 12.12v Headlights (dip) + blower fan - 11.84v

Engine running (tickover) No load - 12.67v Headlights (dip) - 12.61v Headlights (dip) + blower fan - 12.47v

---------------------------------------------------------------------

90 Defender Battery (in 110 Defender)

All voltages measured across the battery terminals.

Engine stopped No load - 13.04v Headlights (dip) - 12.40v Headlights (dip) + blower fan - 12.33v

Engine running (tickover) No load - 13.00v Headlights (dip) - 12.70v Headlights (dip) + blower fan - 12.64v

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now the second battery is better (but then it has been on charge for the last 4 days!) I am concerned that the "on charge" volts are low in both cases. I assume the next set of measurements will be from the alternator. (I have checked the earth, that is OK).

On a related subject, I have two batteries in the car, one is used in series to give me 24v for the Eberspacher heater. If I were to fit a

24v alternator, leave both batteries in series and charge them both when running, that won't cause a problem would it?

Cheers

Peter

Reply to
puffernutter
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From memory with engine running on my V8 Disco, the voltage at battery terminals was 14v or there abouts and 12v with engine off. Looking at your figures i would say that the alternator aint charging.

Dom

Reply to
Dom J

On or around Mon, 05 May 2008 21:35:43 +0100, puffernutter enlightened us thusly:

OK... I reckon it's not charging as Dom said. Does it light the nocharge light when you turn it on?

If not, then could be wiring or alternator, if it does and the light goes out when started it's likely to be the alternator. Especially if the voltage doesn't increase with revs and nowt much on.

I no "ignition" light, then it could be the bulb or wiring as well.

I'm assuming the alternator belt is fitted and tight :-)

Reply to
Austin Shackles

You have the answer when the car is cold the fan should be almost free spinning after a run when is gets good an hot i.e. proper operating temperature- pretty stiff but I don't think solid. My own 200TDi D1 Kato was a bugger for the main fan belt slackening off and causing hotter than normal running and low charging ,possible it was belt related I went through 3 in 18 months until I got one that didn't slip. It was also a bit more difficult to bleed properly taking a couple of attempts to get and odd air out of the system that and about 2lb of mud and leaves in the radiator core didn't help- karcher it! Derek

Reply to
Derek

You might not get your 14v at tickover, try it at higher revs. TonyB

Reply to
TonyB

The best way is to do it on the vehicle. Obtain a carrot, start the engine. If the engine is cold, the carrot will stop the fan when you put into the blades. When the engine is hot it should take the end off the carrot.

Alex

Reply to
Alex Stewart

Just had a horrible thought while you are about it check the crank pulley is on tight there is a bad habit folk have of not locktighting the bolt, after a bit it loosens and the pulley wobbles. The belt is liable to slip as it is never under proper tension I saw 2 when I was looking to buy then Kato's free'd off after a couple of months.I caught it before damage was done luckily! Derek

Reply to
Derek

My 3.5 has a voltmeter built in which can give some weird readings on occasion. When you first start the engine it normally flicks up to around 14v then settles down to 13ish after a couple of minutes. I suspect this is what it's meant to do, but occasionally it'll be on 14v for most of the day, even when the car has been used for the same routine for a week or so.

The 4.6 flashes up "ALTERNATOR FAULT" if I switch the ignition on and don't start the engine for 30 seconds or so, but I suspect that's probably just the BeCM being a bit nervous.

Reply to
Pete M

The charge light is on initially then goes out when the engine is started and stays out with no load. However as the load increases it will light very dimly.

The alternator belt is tight (last time I checked), but I will check it tomorrow night.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Cheers

Peter

Reply to
puffernutter

Sounds like a dead diode or 2 in the rectifier so it's alternator rebuild time.

Reply to
EMB

On or around Tue, 06 May 2008 17:32:23 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

yeah, rather classic symptoms. also it will charge a bit, hence it's not really showing quite "no charge" symptoms.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Mon, 05 May 2008 22:12:50 +0100, Alex Stewart enlightened us thusly:

But note that they generally don't free off for the first few (anything up to about 30s) of running, even when cold.

if you start it and rev it a bit you can normally hear it slow down. It'll not lock up again until it goes over normal temperature, if it's working correctly.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

A fairly large carrot mind, not those little tinned ones, and certainly not those little tinned ones still in their tin.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

empire!

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Is that what could have done in my last fan - I need to take the carrots out of the tin! Doh!

I have another trip to collect sleepers with my trailer next weekend. I'll see what happens then.

Cheers

Peter

Reply to
puffernutter

Could also be a poor connection between the charging circuit and the battery, if the warning lamp is lit there is a potential difference across the bulb howsoever caused.

Oily

Reply to
Oily

:-)

Made Oi Larf!

Aside: that dreadful Bruce Willis thing (or something) with the helicopter flying down the tunnel chasing the train was on recently, and I caught the tail end of it whilst channel hopping (somewhere else!).

You reminded me of it!

Regards,

Simonm.

Reply to
SpamTrapSeeSig

Nonononono! DO NOT TRY IT WITH SLEEPERS. You'll damage the rad with splinters.

Regards,

Simonm.

Reply to
SpamTrapSeeSig

sounds like the dire 'Mission Unbelieveable Too' to me ( you know what I mean ) take a class one TV series and ruin it in a movie I used to be amazed at the way they ( on TV) always did the impossible mission before the advert usually believeable(ish)bit like Macyver . Derek got Oi swiss army knife and land rover I arr off to save the world.

Reply to
Derek

On or around Tue, 6 May 2008 00:20:39 -0700 (PDT), puffernutter enlightened us thusly:

empire!

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I actually got to check the fan cutting back in on the minibus today. Warm weather, up a long hill slow-in-second, it got warm enough to lock the fan back up, and it's quite audible, but only at more'n 2000-odd revs.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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