Thread: May have just saved a battery

Possibly having saved your wife from being stranded somewhere at night may have been the main benefit.

Hmmm. I wonder if because the alternator is isolated (circuit breaker tripped), this is causing the high voltage with no load to bring it back down (infinite resistance versus a load). Just a consideration.
Consider the circuit breaker may have also failed or specification failed such that it is tripping at less amperage.
And maybe you’re right, the alternator’s failed.

Originally Posted by Graeme

Possibly having saved your wife from being stranded somewhere at night may have been the main benefit.

Gday Graeme, it was your original idea of fitting the seperate Alternator cable , so will see what I find today . The battery was at 12v so put it on charge just to make sure . It's now at 13.4 volts so no damage by the looks of it. Am about to go and start checking things and possibly doing an Alternator change . It's the original Alternator so it's a couple of months short of 10 yrs old and done 142,000ks

it was peak hour in Toyota territory, reckon face book would have been flooded with pics of a Land Rover either stuck in the middlr of the road with the bonnet up , or being loaded onto a flat bed .

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Hmmm. I wonder if because the alternator is isolated (circuit breaker tripped), this is causing the high voltage with no load to bring it back down (infinite resistance versus a load). Just a consideration.
Consider the circuit breaker may have also failed or specification failed such that it is tripping at less amperage.
And maybe you’re right, the alternator’s failed.

i have a seperate set up that takes a fuse , I had that in for a while , so I am going to fit that first and see if it blows the 100amp fuse it still has in it . I had that in the car originally but it's not very easy to mount it due to its size.

the fact that the cable from the Alternator is showing 18 plus volts makes me think it's the Alternator voltage regulator that has failed. I did read somewhere that if you get 140,000ks out of the Alternator you have done well , but that could be 1 workshops opinion.

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

i have a seperate set up that takes a fuse , I had that in for a while , so I am going to fit that first and see if it blows the 100amp fuse it still has in it . I had that in the car originally but it's not very easy to mount it due to its size.

the fact that the cable from the Alternator is showing 18 plus volts makes me think it's the Alternator voltage regulator that has failed. I did read somewhere that if you get 140,000ks out of the Alternator you have done well , but that could be 1 workshops opinion.

Cheers Ean

242,000km out of mine so far (D4). I have however ordered a new one and will be fitting it in the next few weeks as I don’t like tempting fate. Good luck with the search for the issue

I’ll only add that I’d have thought the circuit breaker would be relatively agnostic to the voltage difference (~14V to ~18V) and I don’t believe the increase in voltage will cause a current increase (normally the opposite) so for a current sensing device to trip for that I’d be keeping an open mind. As you say, maybe try the fuse and measure voltages etc.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

242,000km out of mine so far (D4). I have however ordered a new one and will be fitting it in the next few weeks as I don’t like tempting fate. Good luck with the search for the issue

242,000 kms!

D4 3.0 twin turbo?

Any engine issues? Original engine?

Regards

Originally Posted by northiam

242,000 kms!

D4 3.0 twin turbo?

Any engine issues? Original engine?

Regards

Yep, 3.0 twin diesel.
Turbine actuator replaced
Drivers side intake manifold
The other usual disco issues
On original gearbox build