P38A Battery Du Jour

kermit_rr said:

With the engine running, use a multimeter to measure the volts between the +ve on the back of the alternator and the alternator body to rule out any bad connections or cables

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P38Seb said:

Update on this.

Tested on a load tester, only showing 732A out of what should been 1000A, so weak there! Battery was sat at 12.5v turned off and with the engine running it was at 13.7v.

Looks like the culprit is just the battery.

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Datatek said:

13.7 volts is not enough to charge a lead calcium battery which is likely why the battery is failing. The regulator in the alternator needs changing for one with a 14.8 volt set point.

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P38Seb said:

Hi all, when I replaced the ABS sensor the other week, a friend had his SnapOn diag tool hooked up checking for a few other issues (glow plugs being one), but it did show up saying the battery voltage was low at 10.7v.

The battery has been in there a amount of time, so probably worth replacing. What’s the current favoured batteries? A lot of threads I’ve found are a few years old with broken links.

When changing the battery is there anything I need to do/be aware of? I’ve seen threads about EKA lockouts etc. car details below.

Engine: 2.5d
Year: early 2001

Thanks all!

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