Originally Posted by
Baj
Hereforth lyeth a lesson:
After taking the car apart, getting a new voltage reg, rebuilding the car, testing the voltage reg, finding it duff, taking the car apart, getting a replacement new voltage reg, rebuilding the car, testing the voltage reg, finding it duff again showing 17v - I spoke to my father, an engineer of long pedigree.
"In engineering," he said "if things are not going as expected you need to start back at the basics with what you know. Test the battery with the meter and anything else with a known voltage. It is 99% likely that it is not the problem but it could be your multimeter is broken. We used to use analogue meters which stood up to electrical fluctuations and odd waveforms better than the digital ones do."
So I checked the battery without the engine running: 13.5v. A little high but not out of the realms of possibility.
I then checked the missus' 1.3 fiesta. Well I never. Her little 4 amp alternator is kicking out 16.5v (according to my meter)
I guess that would explain why my car is running fine and no bulbs had blown :/
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