Hi folks,

As I have mentioned before, electrical stuff is not my strong suit. I need some help figuring out what I did to my Volvo.

I left the car in KP2 all night accidentally. No accessories were running, but I do have some extra gauges that may have contributed to battery drain. The car didn't have enough juice to crank (or even click!), and the gauges were giving arbitrary false readings that would change each time I tried to crank it. I tried to jump it with a known good pair of jumper cables, but it wouldn't crank.

I took my battery to Autozone to be charged that evening. In the morning, I installed the battery - voltmeter read 11 volts - and it started, and the voltmeter read 12.5 volts while idling. While I was driving (simply to charge it), the voltmeter would rise and fall with engine speed, which it has never done before.

I stopped and noticed my alternator belt was loose, but tightening it had no effect.

After the long in-town drive (with one errand in between) my voltmeter reads 14.5 volts idling, and if I turn on my lights, aux fan (I have a manual rocker switch), and 140 watt stereo, I can drop it to below 13 volts.

I'm thinking voltage regulator. I need some help, I've never had a voltmeter on a car before.

Thanks!

Ari