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Voltage Rage!

clara_pellar

By clara_pellar
in BMW 2002 and other '02

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clara_pellar Newbie

clara_pellar

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So I have a 76 2002 that I bought back in September, I have had a lot of fun with it thus far except for the following.

In the last few months I have replaced: Alternator, Voltage Regulator, Ignition Coil, Electronic Ignition, Battery, Every Bulb, and replaced or cleaned up most of the wiring/grounds in the engine bay and in the dash. Oh ya and I did the heater box twice just for fun!

The current problem is that my battery is being overcharged like crazy. Its strange when the car is cold the voltage regulator seems to do it's job, voltage at the battery and from the alternator under load come in right under 13 volts. After driving the car for 15 or 20 minutes though you start to notice the headlights/heater fan pick up with the engine rpm's. Voltage at the battery and from the alt will climb all the way to 17 volts! The new voltage regulator gets noticeably warm.

My question is: could this really be as simple as the new voltage regulator just being NFG? Or is the Alt just feeding it too much for it to handle?

Any advice is much appreciated!

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KFunk Grand Master

KFunk

Posted
Posted
So I have a 76 2002 that I bought back in September, I have had a lot of fun with it thus far except for the following.

In the last few months I have replaced: Alternator, Voltage Regulator, Ignition Coil, Electronic Ignition, Battery, Every Bulb, and replaced or cleaned up most of the wiring/grounds in the engine bay and in the dash. Oh ya and I did the heater box twice just for fun!

The current problem is that my battery is being overcharged like crazy. Its strange when the car is cold the voltage regulator seems to do it's job, voltage at the battery and from the alternator under load come in right under 13 volts. After driving the car for 15 or 20 minutes though you start to notice the headlights/heater fan pick up with the engine rpm's. Voltage at the battery and from the alt will climb all the way to 17 volts! The new voltage regulator gets noticeably warm.

My question is: could this really be as simple as the new voltage regulator just being NFG? Or is the Alt just feeding it too much for it to handle?

Any advice is much appreciated!

I don't know where you got the voltage regulator, but I've had a couple nearly new ones from Autozone fail on my truck within a couple months.... They just don't make them like they used to, for some reason. They tend to use circuit boards now, when in the past it was a mechanical device that was more reliable.

Can you return your reg under warranty? That's what I did.

For my 02, I just bought a 320i alternator last time, which has an internal regulator (seem to be better than the quality of external regs these days). Not much modification necessary. You can cut off the harness and just use the one D+ wire, and you get 10 more amps for fun, too.

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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