SLROC Forum

Hi all, here goes my mate had a shot of my disco for the weekend so I was using his td5 defender and I parked it up on Monday and left it for half an hour and when I went back to it it wouldn't start it turned slowly then went dead so I put some jump leads on it and away it went so went back to my house (10 min drive) turned it off and tried it again still nothing so I put the charger on it low over night and in the morning it started about 3 times then it went dead again so I checked the voltage while running was at 12.5v slowly dropping, so check the earth to the battery that seamed fine, checked the plug on the back of the alternator gave it a wee clean, then tried a known good battery of my motor but it did exactly the same thing and the starter seams the be turning free enough, so would I be right on saying it needs an alternator?

Cheers

Q. When driving if the lights are on do they slowly get duller ? Or do instruments like the radio cease to function if so  then 2  things I would check are all connections for a drain on a broken wire or earth straps from chassis to engine easy way to see is get your jump lead attach one end to the engine and other end to chassis and if everything sudden goes bright then its a earth fault or broken earth strap if nothing happens its alternator check all leads are okay and check voltage when its running should be about 14.4v at battery when on -
Hope this helps
John

Ok well I never had it out in the dark with the lights on but I did leave it running outside my house and after about 20 mins it just cut out?? But yeah a did try a jump lead from the engine to the - battery and it never made any odds.
Thanks

Ok well I never had it out in the dark with the lights on but I did leave it running outside my house and after about 20 mins it just cut out?? But yeah a did try a jump lead from the engine to the - battery and it never made any odds.
Thanks

hi not to battery from engine to chassis and put lights on before and see if theres a change, if its a earth strap from engine to chassis they will immediatly get brighter if not then yes its the alternater.
cheers
john

Ok checked all that and nothing different happened, so I put an alternator on it.......still no change??? Pos faulty altarnator?

Ok checked all that and nothing different happened, so I put an alternator on it.......still no change??? Pos faulty altarnator?

The battery itself may be dud how old is it and have you done the sniff test? Open each champers and if it smells if rotten eggs its a gone and needs replace which would mean alternator and straps okay , if they smell of sweet tea this is same way to check if a engine is or has been hammered the same smells if the engine oil when you sniff the cap don't ask me why both smell same the engine one I got told about but the battery is a true one I know , no matter what charge it's getting it can't hold it or pass it on so whatever had built up just gets to a level so low it restricts the power flow to the engine causing it to splutter and cut out then after a rest it will restart but again repeat its splutter and cut out so in short try this now sorry its a long process of fault finding but all needs done to find the fault .
Cheers
John