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Electrical issue?

M

Mosley9423

New member
Ok so I recently bought this 06 gxp and I love it. Kinda. So the other day I was driving and it was reading 13.5-15.2. I started it up after work and it was reading 14.4 right away then I started driving then it dropped to 12.7-13 while driving and a charging system failure message popped up on the dash. So I had the battery check and was only putting out 220 CCA out of 750 so I replaced the battery and alternator just so I wouldn't have any more problems with it. Well the next day it was doing the same thing. It kinda hesitates to start as well because of the cracking amps. What is killing the batteries like this? The battery don't die but voltage drops bad enough when the car is sitting the the lights dim as well.
 


whats happening is the alt isnt pumping out enough to keep the battery happy. OR option #2 is your car has something left on like the bulb in the trunk all night that can cause your battery to go low.


had a 1999 durango we went to the airport to visit my grandma and grandpa we left 1 light on for 1 week and it drained the battery all the way down.

but in your case i would get the alt bench tested to see if its ok
 


Sorry about that. But I had the alternator checked and it's putting out 14.18 volts. Something is just killing the cranking amps. But what's weird is the battery don't die. It won't die its just killing the cranking amps and while the car is running just randomly drops then comes right back
 
Also check the current sensor around the negative battery cable as it is used in the charging system. It is normal for the battery voltage to vary between 12.5 and 15.1, but not to get the charging system failure. The current sensor tells how much the system is drawing from the battery and adjusts the alternator accordingly.

Jeff
 
I went through 2 batteries before finding that the red top Altima was the only one happy about trying to hold a charge around 15 volts. The gxp altnaters are known to overcharge (which isn't a bad thing) as long as the battery cells will tolerate it.

some makes/models charging above 13.5 is considered to be a problem. Welcome to gxp world where everything plays by gxp laws of physics
 
over charging is a issue for a lot of cars, i went through 2 rebuilt alts due to over charging, my truck hated being at 15+ volts, it didnt even run right, like the electronics were over loaded or something.

3 rd alt put it at 13.5-14 volts and the charging failure message went away and it ran right again.
 


It's not a GXP thing, it's a 04+ thing. The older cars did it as well to a lesser extent. The normal routine for the car is that with a charged battery it will start and charge at about 14V (unless the temp is very low then as high as 15). After several minutes of driving the voltage will slowly drop to about 12.5V and hold. If you are on a steady cruise you will see the voltage stay at 12.5 for about 20-30 minutes then it will rise to 13.8V for about 10 minutes and it will continue until you stop. At night the battery is monitored and depending on it's SOC and state of the battery itself and will go into reconditioning mode when it feels the need. When batteries start to go bad the system will go into that mode more often. The only time you will see the battery run at a constant 13.8-14.4 is when you have the lights on. The lights emit a set amount of light based on voltage and current so the voltage is set to maintain the same brightness. As far as batteries go any quality battery is fine. They will actually last longer since they are not constantly held at such a high level of charge which actually causes batteries to fail.

Jeff
 
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