Thread: Have I got a battery cell dying or ???

Gday All,

I have a strange thing happening with my D3 , Started with the death of my original alternator , 12 yrs old so wont complain, fitted new Denso unit which I purchased from the UK and was told it was the correct D3 unit , all good , multi meter tells me its charging , a week later my battery voltage monitor alarms goes off when I turn the ignition to let the glow plugs do there thing before starting the car. The car starts and the charge tells me all is good.

I put the battery on charge over night and all is good , 2 days later the low voltage alarm sounds again whilst doing the same process , waiting for the glow plug to go out, but this time the car starts but the battery light stays on the dash for about 2 mins or so , then it goes out and I see the charge increase on the voltage monitor.

This morning my wife tells me the same thing happened , she got about 500 mtrs down the road before the alternator started charging.

Some info , car does very little kms on a daily basis , a round trip to work is about 10ks. I usually put it on charge overnight about once a month. Battery is a 5yr old AC Delco 850CCA . A multimeter tells me its holding charge but I had a new supercharge battery show the same thing but once put on a load tester it had dropped a cell.

I have no issue's buying a new battery , actually it was on my list for mid year , but I am more curious as to why the Alternator doesn't put charge in straight away.... Is this normal , or do I have a suspect 2 week old Alternator as well....

Thanks and Cheers Bulletman

Originally Posted by ian4002000

As the battery is 5 years old I would be replacing the battery, and consider changing the alternator if you get any irregularities after the new battery is fitted.
How many Km's has the vehicle done ? Does the alternator look original ?

Ian
Bittern

168,000ks , changed out the original alternator about 2 weeks ago. New Alternator is the Denso ? brand that is the original alternator.

Cheers Bulletman