Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart
Was there possibly some spot where the cable was rubbing against something until there was a bare part of the copper conductor, causing a short?
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No Stuart, not at all. The cables are exceptionally well insulated and clear of any part which may rub which leaves me a couple of thoughts:
The fact that my car when I purchased it, was 15 years old and (quite alarmingly) I'm the 13th owner, who knows what might have been played with in the past. The alternator does not look very old, it was fairly clean without what I'd expect to have seen a lot of grease etc. So I'm guessing it may have been changed at some point not long before I bought the car.
When I pulled off the nut holding the cable lug to the alternator, it was tight but there were literally only about 4 strands of copper holding it to the lug.
So maybe the lug might have been poorly crimped right from the start and it slowly gave up the struggle over the years or maybe at some time before me the lug nut wasn't tightened properly. Maybe even from new?? Who would know??
Actually there is a bit more to my alternator woes. For some months now, the battery has fairly rapidly discharged if the car has sat for more than a few days. Because I only really drive it once a week or so, I got into the habit of always connecting a maintenance charger every time I put it away. The battery is only 12 months old so no issues there. But if for instance I thought I'd be using the car the next day, I didn't bother with the charger then often maybe I didn't use the car so it might have sat for a few days before I put the charger back on. In those cases, it might take 48 hours to show a full charge again. 4-5 days and it would not have enough to crank the engine.
So I had decided anyway to buy a new alternator because I suspect a bad diode might be allowing the current to flow back. The alternator I bought is a genuine GM branded unit although I note it was made by Mitsubishi but it does clearly say Made in Japan so at least I know the new one is not a cheapo Chinese knock off.
All very annoying but that's part of the price of running an older car I guess!
Ian
