No i just figured out that the alternator wasn't putting out power yesterday. I checked it with a multimeter on the battery while it was running and the voltage didn't come up so it wasn't charging the battery. In order to eliminate the voltage regulator i pulled the neg battery cable while it was running and the car died immediately. In my experience that has never failed me to "test" a bad alternator. My replacement should be in today so im going to swap it out tonight and double check the wiring. This is my only car right now so i had to just go ahead and have them order my alternator because i want it to be there if i dont have a wiring problem

 

There are other reasons why an alternator is not charging the battery, other than the alternator is bad. Corroded ground cable, corroded battery to alternator cable, corroded ground connections, loose connections, and etc are some of the other reasons. I always take a "bad" alternator to be tested at an auto parts store just in cause, the test is free.

I had to upgrade my sister's 89 240's cables because they were corroded inside and causing the battery not to charge by the alternator, even thought both the battery and alternator tested fine outside the car.

The 0/1 welding cables I upgraded her car to, the stock positive cable.

 

Never thought of using welding cables good idea. It's not only not charging but its not putting any power into the car at all. When i pulled the negative cable the car didnt even hesitate to die. When my 4runner had corroded cables it would still run with the battery disconnected just not very well. This wouldn't be the first time that autozone gave me some bunk parts. They had to give me 4 master cylinders for my 245 before i got one that didn't blow out when i bled the brakes. Thanks for the insite though. If the alternator doesn't fix it then im going to start chasing wiring this weekend

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I warrantied out the alternator and now its all fine. Crappy thing is the next day on my way to work i stopped and put gas in my volvo. I tried to start it and there goes the fuel pump. What a week lol.

 

Hello All, I am wondering if someone could answer a question for me about V70 alternators. I have two (one for the wife) 2002 V70’s. One of them was running fine until I left it unused for about six months. When I took the battery off the car I was using and started the car I had not been using the battery light and warning message came up on the dash. So I put the battery back on the other car and drove it for a year with no problems.Now the odd bit, the V70 I was using was parked up while I used my C70 for the summer. When the winter came I put a new battery on V70 it also had the charging light and message displayed – just like the other V70.Is this just a coincidence? Neither car had any charging problems before they were left unused for a few months.

 

um, you should probably ask that in the 850/S/V70 forum, unless its the facelifted v70, then the v70-ii forum, or whatever its called.

240/740/940 have completely different engines, transmissions, everything.

 

Coming in a little late here, but Volvo did offer the option for a voltage gauge from the factory, although it is by no means common. Also, one of the earlier posts mentioned concern regarding the voltage gauge jumping around when stoped and using indicators or wipers but that's exactly what is supposed to happen, it will drop as the indicator is engaged and using power and rise when it's off, same with the intermittent cycle of the wipers; all in the same way that the needle will go down as one stops because the brake lights and brake booster are engaged. My father's 240 also has the optional volt reader and always frets about "what's using all my volts", which I've always found quite funny.

Slightly unrelated, but 1995-1997 Jaguar XJ's (x300) all had voltage gauges in with the rest of the instruments and the facelift version of the same car (1998-2000, the x308) did not. Having both I once was talking to a mechanic and offhandedly mentioned that I missed the gauge in my x300 while in the x308 and he brought to my attention that many concerned owners brought their cars in for service because the voltage gauge would move when they would turn on the radio, or use HVAC, or turn on the headlights, and other such normal functions. Because of all the confused owners they ended up simply leaving off the voltage gauge in the x308 and I imagine Volvo had a similar logic to not offering it as standard on the 240.

 

the coolant gauge in the 240s, 740s, 940s has a hysteresis circuit so its always dead in the middle, and only reads high or low if its extremely hot or cold. so does the one in my 2002 f250 ... same thing, a linear gauge twitched too much and people were freaking out.