Repair-It

Yeah, and Adam likes right angle needle nose. None of that would have worked for how far down this hose was. If there was a dedicated tool maybe that would have been good.

So more battery observations. I've had Ed and Adam tell me they'd just replace the battery and not screw around. A group 101 is like $200 for this car, less from certain sources. So I want to milk it if it's not totally and obviously about to render the car inoperable.

I took it off the Battery Tender last night when I got home and started it. Cranked fine obviously. But I noticed it was charging at a fairly low voltage, like 13.0 or something. I got out my DVM and that agreed perfectly with the dash readout. Sometimes it would climb up to 13.4 but sometimes not. RPM seemed to make no difference. I also loaded it up with headlights, high beams, defroster and even hit the window switches and the voltage did not change even from all that, so I figure the alternator is working properly. But it also wasn't charging at what I would have expected.

I had a theory that in the morning it would charge normally and I was right. It was 14.2V this morning. But by the time I got to work, it was down to 13.3 or something. What's going on? My best theory is that this is normal behavior. This car has the same fancy inductive current sensing as the SRX which monitors battery draw and regulates alternator voltage accordingly. If it senses the battery is drained, it will elevate the voltage to charge it. I think after sitting on the battery tender it made the system think everything was charged (which it was). Only after an overnight sit and crank did it say, oh, I better charge this. And before getting to work, perhaps it calculated that the battery was topped off and backed off the voltage to a maintenance charge level. This is my best theory for what is going on.

I will continue to milk this battery. Maybe I should throw my sweet jumper cables in the car just in case. It wouldn't be a bad idea to actually load test the battery to know for sure what its capacity is, but I don't have one. Harbor Freight?

kevm14 wrote:Yeah, and Adam likes right angle needle nose. None of that would have worked for how far down this hose was. If there was a dedicated tool maybe that would have been good.

Oh yeah there is all kinds of stuff. Like this.

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4525-Cable-T ... B000F5JM0O I can't say for certain if this would have solved the problem but there are other tools, as well.

Battery and charging system seem fine. I am sure the battery is weak but i will keep milking it.

Ian alerted me that a rear courtesy light was on...this isn't helping me. I don't know if that is why the battery wouldn't crank the engine but it is not a bad hypothesis. I put the charger back on it again...

kevm14 wrote:I took it off the Battery Tender last night when I got home and started it. Cranked fine obviously. But I noticed it was charging at a fairly low voltage, like 13.0 or something. I got out my DVM and that agreed perfectly with the dash readout. Sometimes it would climb up to 13.4 but sometimes not. RPM seemed to make no difference. I also loaded it up with headlights, high beams, defroster and even hit the window switches and the voltage did not change even from all that, so I figure the alternator is working properly. But it also wasn't charging at what I would have expected.

Took it off the Battery Tender again. Started the car and the volts crept up slowly to 14.3 while driving but even on a short drive around town, it dropped to like 13.5 in not too long. Then I realized I had my wipers in auto, which turns the headlights on. I turned those off. The volts slowly crept down to 12.8! I turned the headlights back on. Over the course of a minute or so the volts crept back up to 13.5 or so. So that is what it was doing before. As to why the voltage is higher with the headlights on, I don't know, but it is probably designed that way. Maybe it's not the headlights per se, but any load. Driving around at 12.8-13V tells me the PCM estimates a fully charged battery and that will maintain it. But with a load, maybe the PCM gives it a little extra just to make sure the battery doesn't discharge. Line loss over the cables and power distribution, something something.

Anyway, I think everything is working properly. After finding the courtesy light on, I am freshly emboldened to continue on this battery.

Drove into work again, this time with the display set on battery volts so I could watch it obsessively the whole time. It was charging at 14.3V for much of the drive. Then on the Newport Bridge it began dropping by tenths to 12.8 then it settled back up at 13.0 for the remainder of my commute. I believe everything is functioning normally. Fixed forever?

More proof that the STS was an easier sell than an old (90s) B/D-body or REALLY old (70s) D-body: when we were out the other day in the car, I mentioned that she needs to try driving the STS. Her response? Ok. Those of you not familiar with my situation may not appreciate the "win" there...but it's there.

kevm14 wrote:More proof that the STS was an easier sell than an old (90s) B/D-body or REALLY old (70s) D-body: when we were out the other day in the car, I mentioned that she needs to try driving the STS. Her response? Ok.

Where is the in-depth review?

kevm14 wrote:

kevm14 wrote:A lot of my research suggested the Italian tune up. Specifically, wind out a gear (like 2nd) and let off holding that gear to decelerate and make a high vacuum in the cylinder. Do this a few times. Well, don't mind if I do.

I did a couple runs of this on my commute. Wound out 2nd, holding 2nd, and coasted from redline. Did that a few times. Tried it in 3rd as well. I didn't notice any exchaust emissions but it'll be interesting if this changes anything.

I just checked. It is near the top. Unless it suddenly sucks down almost 3/4 qt in less than 200 miles, I'd say this has improved. I will have to keep watching and maybe check the SRX, too.

Adam wrote:

kevm14 wrote:More proof that the STS was an easier sell than an old (90s) B/D-body or REALLY old (70s) D-body: when we were out the other day in the car, I mentioned that she needs to try driving the STS. Her response? Ok.

Where is the in-depth review?

I will see if I can pull some choice quotes if and when she finally drives it.