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Hi everyone,
I’m back here again with a weird issue that occurred this morning. I was going to take my Audi into work this morning, but it died suddenly when I was pulling out of the driveway. It shut off and the battery light lit up and I was able to restart the car, but I decided to park it, because I didn’t feel safe driving it. I came home from work today and decided to spend some time troubleshooting it.
The car has about 195K miles on it and since I have acquired it, I’ve fixed various issues. One time a few months ago the battery did drain completely (it sat for several weeks) and I charged it back up with a trickle charge battery charger. It does have a few electrical gremlins that popup on their own, but I do not think they are related to my current problem. I believe the coil packs are still original.
I took the battery voltage when the car was off and it was 12.2V. While the car was idling it was at 13.92V and I then had my wife rev the car to about 1500-2000RPM and the voltage stayed constant around 13.92V. I realize that 12.2V is slightly low, so I trickle charged it again (It was at 12.6 or 12.7 powered off now), but I’m still having this same issue, I’ve noticed since the car died this morning.
Basically, what happens is when I rev the car up and let off the gas all the lights get bright and the RPM jumps up and then back down. I also had one of those plug in battery/voltage devices that plug in the cigarette lighter. I noticed during the power surge the red light for the alternator test would quickly light up, which means it read over 14.XXX volts.
The alternator is in a crappy spot on this car and I couldn’t get good access to perform a voltage drop test or anything else on the alternator itself. I checked some fuses and they looked good. The connections looked good from what I saw and the CEL is not illuminated, but I haven’t checked for any pending codes.
Could this be an alternator on it’s way out? I’ve always thought lights dim out when the alternator acts up and it appears the regulator is keeping the voltage within specs. I’m just not sure if there is a current surge or something.
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How old is the battery? I’m a little skeptical with you always recharging the battery.
Try load testing the battery and alternator.I’m not sure how old the battery is, I’d have to look for a manufacture date later when I get home. I’ll try load testing the battery/alternator again later when I get home from work.
[quote=”coffeysm” post=178260]I’m not sure how old the battery is, I’d have to look for a manufacture date later when I get home. I’ll try load testing the battery/alternator again later when I get home from work.[/quote]
🙂
I didn’t have time after work to do anymore testing. I started this morning and the issue I was having seemed to disappear, however, I left my cigarette lighter tester plugged in while I was driving to work. I noticed that when I started to turn on certain accessories headlights, lights, defroster, and ESPECIALLY the heat warmers the LED that shows the voltage is good would start blinking, flashing, and cutting out. When I turned those off the LED would stabilize and remain steady in color. I’m going to have a load test done on the battery first.
[quote=”coffeysm” post=178359]I didn’t have time after work to do anymore testing. I started this morning and the issue I was having seemed to disappear, however, I left my cigarette lighter tester plugged in while I was driving to work. I noticed that when I started to turn on certain accessories headlights, lights, defroster, and ESPECIALLY the heat warmers the LED that shows the voltage is good would start blinking, flashing, and cutting out. When I turned those off the LED would stabilize and remain steady in color. I’m going to have a load test done on the battery first.[/quote]
I would check the laternator and battory with a condition tester and see how it test… Im wundering what the CCA your reading is?? I would also check cableing and see if you see any breaks in it… because thats sorta a odd probmel you having… but wire contoion can cause it, but might be hard to find
Funny you should mention the CCA. I actually called AAA, since I just remembered with my membership they will do diagnostic tests for free and you get a discount should you need a battery. Everything seemed to pass all his tests, however, the CCA came in at 470, which was extremely lower than the tester recommended and what was printed on the battery. So, I bought a new battery anyway for about 175 bucks and hopefully this will help with the weird issues I was having.
Oh yea the battery was from 2010, I found that out when it was replaced.
If not I will have to move on from there.
[quote=”coffeysm” post=178365]Funny you should mention the CCA. I actually called AAA, since I just remembered with my membership they will do diagnostic tests for free and you get a discount should you need a battery. Everything seemed to pass all his tests, however, the CCA came in at 470, which was extremely lower than the tester recommended and what was printed on the battery. So, I bought a new battery anyway for about 175 bucks and hopefully this will help with the weird issues I was having.
Oh yea the battery was from 2010, I found that out when it was replaced.
If not I will have to move on from there.[/quote]
Sounds like a plan. Hopefully the alternator is not on its way out.
Well, I think I had about three or four things going on at once, since the car no longer runs at all now, lol. However, I think I have diagnosed my new issue being a fuel pump. I was still having problems the other day, so I did some more troubleshooting and took off the battery compartment and it was completely full of water due to a clogged drain. That is ALSO where the ECU and several critical relays live, but luckily they were all dry and I tested the main relays to see if they clicked and had continuity across the other terminals. Car eventually started misfiring, sputtered, and completely died on me.
I thought my crank sensor was acting up, but I tested the resistance on that sensor and it was within spec. Cracked the fuel rail open and pointed the hose to a catch can as I cranked several times and nothing was coming out. I tested the fuel pump relay as well and that clicked to open the other terminals which had continuity as well. All fuses looked good, so I’m going to test power at the pump or try to fire the pump on manually to verify my diagnosis. I think it’s under performing, since it will have slight pressure when I rehook the lines and disconnect them, but hardly any fuel comes out. Fuel filter is relatively new as well.
So, I think I had a weak battery and failing fuel pump when my first issue started to pop up. Timing was just crappy, because I wanted to get this timing belt started, since it’s probably about 25K miles overdue.
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