International Lancia Forums

Hi all,

I have a query on my Dedra's battery charging. When I start the car the battery gauge indicate about 9 volts. It will still there not charging until the revs go above about 3 thousand then it shoots up to 12volts. It's apparently a problem with the voltage regualator in the altenator but does anyone know of a fix. The altenator belt is tensioned correctly and all is normal once you've revved up, it's just a niggly fault !

Many Thanks,

Gary

Hi Gary
Please check the connections to the alternator as they corrode thus causing a bad connection as my wife's Dedra kept saying that the Alt was not charging on simply check you battery as my Thema's battery was low on Distilled water.
Cheers
shah
Poole Dorset

Hi,

There is a possibility of a malfunction of the indicator. Try to get a multimeter and check that values your self with it. Set the scale of the multimeter to the nearest of 12v (above it). Place the red probe on the positive batery terminal, and the black one on the negative.
With the car stoped, the value should be abouve 12v, if not, your battery is not in very good shape.
Start the engine and the value should goes betwen 13v and 14v and have to stay in this values if you acelarate.

There is a another teste that you can do to check the alternator, but it can damage electronic parts if there is something wrong with it, so if you wanna do it, do it at your own risk.
Place the negative probe of the multimeter on the negative terminal of the batery;
Start the engine;
Take off the positive terminal of the battery and place the red probe on the cable terminal.
Acelarate the engine gently...take it to 2500-3000 r.p.m (+/-).
If the value on the multmeter goes upper then 16v you may have a problem.
This test is dangerous (specialy to electronic parts) because the alternator may have a problem and tension can go to high values, Without the battery to stop it.
Do it at your own risk.

Hi Gary,

Strangely enough I have exactly the same problem with my '92 Dedra 2.0 Integrale. When I start my car, the battery gauge indicates a voltage of around 9 volts. However it starts without any problems, even on cold winter days. As long as I don't rev the engine to about 3000rpm this condition will remain, even while driving. If I rev it to above that level (even for a split second), the battery gauge jumps to just below 12 volts. I also noticed that during the period that the gauge indicates a low voltage, my ABS system plays up as if the computer is not getting enough power (the ABS warning light on the dashboard lights up at that time). In order not to damage my ABS system (just to be sure...), I have now temporarily disconnected the cable from the ABS computer.

I swapped my battery for a brand new one because I suspected the battery to be in a poor state, however this did not solve the problem. Also the alternator belt seems to be OK, therefore my next suspect is the alternator itself (a Bosch unit).

In case you find out what is wrong, please post it to the board...


Best regards,
Erik (Amsterdam , Netherlands)

I had the same problem with my '93 Dedra.
It is solved now. Somebody told me to check my battery warning light of the dash. So I did and it was defect!!!

After replacing, my car starts charging from 1000 rpm instead of 4000 rpm.

Hope this helps,
Best Regards
Jorrit