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Battery Charge light


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Probably doesn't matter but it's getting to me

on start up battery light comes on and stays on until give right foot a blast then goes out until next time it's been sat a while. Is there anything I should be looking at? alternator is charging belts all tight so am at limit of my knowledge.

cheers

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Mine's done that since I've had it, the past three years. Through three alternators and several brush/regulator packs on the last couple.

I've put it down to just not quite getting the RPM at idle to self-excite on a cold idle, sometimes on a warm start it will go out straight away, I'm guessing due to the slightly higher idle speed. I only have to literally touch the throttle to make the light go out when it does stay on.

Once off it stays off, and everything works fine with a good charging voltage and minimal voltage drop over the charging leads :)

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What he said! The charge light is actually used to initially excite the alternator until it is self-sustaining. The idle revs are not enough on start up to get past that critical point. Once you blip the throttle the point is reached and all is well!

Mine has done that for the last few years. Nothing to worry about, or just increase the idle speed slightly. It is not an indication of a failing alternator.

Cheers

Peter

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Mine used to do this, cleaning the battery terminals and clamps made it stay on for a slightly shorter time (they were pretty bad). When i put a bigger battery in the problem stopped, it only ever does it now on start up if I havn't used the landy for about 10days and goes out with a quick blip of the throttle :D

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What size pulley wheel is on your alternator? I'm guessing a 91 200TDI will be the larger size. If so, instead of changing the idle speed, you could change to the smaller pulley (which requires the slightly shorter belt). Smaller pulley does slightly more turning per engine rotation so that may just give it enough ooomph to get the initial self-excite volatge the alternator requires. Can't guarentee this will work but is an alternative instead to adjusting your idle. That said, if your idle is too low then it'd be best to adjust it correctly ;)

Back to pulleys, I prefer the smalller one (49mm dia) as I use a 100A alternator and even at idle it kicks out a lot of current - considerably more than my original 65A alternator with larger pulley. The old pulley is 62mm diameter. The part # for the two different length belts are ERR3287 and ERR5911. I'm pretty certain that ERR5911 is the slightly shorter belt used with the smaller pulley.

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