Night runing

[Sandun]

hi yesterday night i went to the temple- 2km- on my car using head light - today the car not esy to start , battary voltege was 11.2 , after that i run afternoon - light off- 3 km then chack battery it was 12:1 v -and start well , why it can not run on night?

[Suzukimorris]

Is that dynamo or alternator? I know running short journeys on my old dynamo sometimes didn't charge my battery fully, that was hit or miss. To be fair out of all my cars I've suffered with battery problems several times, and has 99% of the time come down to a dodgey earth or failing that battery getting towards the end of its life.

[MarkyB]

2km is little more than a mile so you have started and run the car with lights twice to cover just over 2 miles.
The fact that it's charged up better doing about 4 miles with the lights off suggests that the charging system is a least functioning.

[wickermonkey]

Doesnt charging aslo depend on how much you rev the engine, if your only doing a short journey and the engine is only just above tick over then it wont charge much but if you hold it in gear for a bit longer then more excess power is created for charging?

thats my thinking anyway

[MarkyB]

True but as it won't even get up to temperature in that distance it's not a good idea to rev it too hard.

[bmcecosse]

I think you have mentioned before sandun that the charging is not great.... You need to tighten the fan belt, then run a test for us - with good revs, measure the battery voltage. Should be 13.8 to 14 volts. then switch on headlights and heater (or cooling) fan (if you have one) and measure the volts agian for us - again at good engine revs. Report back the readings!!

[lambrettalad]

Hi
I fitted an alternator for better charging ,a big improvement