Hi everyone,
i hope someone here can help me out
i took my two young sons out in our 740 estate (89) yesterday and on our way to our destination the car just lost all power and died on me
when i tried to restart it there was nothing in the battery at all not even enough power to open/close a window.
Thankfully we had broken down near a car dealership and one of the guys came out with a spare battery to give us a jump start. With the new battery attatched she fired up straight away and ran a sweet as ever!
However when we detatched the jump cables the old girl died straight away !!!!
The "salesman" said it must be my battery that is the problem. SO, i bought a new one from him, fitted it and away we went with no more problems.

Or so i thought.

We reached our destination, had a good day and in the evening started our return trip home.
About half way home the radio stopped working, closely followed by the Rev counter,temp gauge and instument panel lights. then i started to loose engine power and after a few hundred yards had to pull over onto the hard shoulder and the engine just died again !!!
I tried to turn her over but again the New battery was totaly flat!
then i had to call out a tow truck to bring me home (£223 )

I have had the new battery on charge over night and i just know that when i go out and fit it this morning she will fire up and run with out skipping a beat (as usual)
But, i feel sure it will only be a matter of a short while until all power is lost again..........................

Has anyone got an idea as to what i am up against here ?

I love my car and feel lost knowing i cant trust her at the moment

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil

 

Sounds like your alternator or generator is bad.It will run on the battery till there is no more life left.The alternator keeps the battery charged and the car running.With a bad battery the car will stay running and when you turn it off it won't start again.

 

Thanks for the reply


I first thought it must be the alternator, but after charging the battery overnight, starting the car (first turn of the key and she fired up, as norm) i went round my local auto store and they checked out the battery and alternator with a meter. All ok (apparently)!!!!!

I came straight home and left it running with my digital voltmeter on the battery. Everything seemed fine for around 20 mins with the voltage at a steady 12.5-13 Volts.
Then very slowly the voltage started to drop. it took a further 15-20 mins until the battery was reading just over 10 volts and the engine started to die. I turned the engine off and tried to restart it.............................. Dead as a dodo.......

I have the battery on charge again now and when its ready i'll fit it again. I just know the same thing will happen again.

Would the alternator work for a while from cold and then very slowly die out , only to work fine again on the next cold start up ????????
Or could it be something else?


Thanks again,
Phil.

 

Hi PHLI72

Sounds like your alternator fail like Tech said, when engine is warm. may be you have volts reeding but not good AMP.
It's the battery light on the instrumen panel when you turn the ignition key on ?

But my thought it must be the alternator

George

 

buy a new battery?

 

it is a new battery !!!!

As i said in the first post

 

That was a common problem with those alternators.I would get a new alt. and install it.

 

Thanks Guys,

Bang on the money

Picked up an alt from my local Volvo breakers sat morning, fitted it straight away.

Its now Tuesday morn and she hasnt skipped a beat all weekend (touch wood)

Noticed the brushes on the old Voltage reg were very low tho down to 5 mm (the minimum in my book) so it may well have been that..................i dont really care now LOL

Thanks again

Phil.

 

Im glad you got it running good again.Sometimes the brushes are bad but not all the time.If you wanted to you can purchase a set and install them in and have the alt tested and if it works good you will have a spare for next time.With all the trouble you had I wanted to make sure you got it running good again.Thats why i suggested the alt that was the most likely cause first.