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Brickers:
I have a baffling situation wuth my 1985 745t and am hoping someone on the board is intrigued enough to help me out.
About a month and a half ago I took my car into be serviced by my volvo specialist. In the process of dropping in a new m46 (yeah, quite a service) he tightened the alternator quickly, saying it was a little loose.
After this my alternator began running at high voltage. Specifically, the gauge reads about 15 volts when I'm driving at highway speeds. In an attempt at a simple fix, I recently replaced both the A/C and Alternator belts and pulled and replaced the Alt. bushings as well (the belts were beginning to squeal so I figured I'd go whole hog).
No luck. My alternator is still running at 15 volts when I drive at highway speed (70-75mph), and I now have a new issue. When idling from a cold start or simply at sitting at a light my voltage drops down to about 13 volts or so and begins to fluctuate by about a centimeter on the gauge. It doesn't drop off completely, but sometimes the lights will dim and it just seems to lose power. Additionally, I just drove 3 hours and the voltage gauge seemed to be pushing right at the top of 15 volts, as though it had hit a wall and wanted to charge hiugher but couldn't (thankfully).
My haynes seems to confidently indicate that overcharging is a result of a malfunctioning voltage regulator or worn brushes, but would this also cause the voltage to drop at idle? Conversly, is it possible my voltage regulator is shot and the alternator is loose? It seems tight as hell (with only about 0.5" or less play in the middle), and I would think that the fact that it can overcharge at all kills the idea of it being loose, but I don't know. When I apply pressure to the middle of the alt. belt run it actually pulls on the alternator a little (not to tight is it?).
One other thing I should mention is that I have another two funky electrical symptoms. When I put the car in reverse often the right turn signal illuminates faintly; no blinking, just a faint green glow from it. Also, when I returned to my car during my trip tonight after stopping at the gas station the radio setting had reset to the default station (the radio is original).
Thanks for taking the time to read through this fairly long post. All help is greatly appreciated.
-Rick
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