dangerously high volt reading??
 

I have an optima red top battery thats been in my car for like a year now hassle free and it IS the correct battery for my car.

but, latly i have been noticing oddly high volt readings on my gauges.. im talking like 16 volts... not quite to the red line on the gauge... but gettin pretty close... i remember normal being like 13...

basically im just wondering if this is bad, what could cause it to happen, and what if anything i should do about it..

thanks for the help =]


Jared

i have noticed in the morning , when its very cold out . my gauge also reades a higer voltage then normal . did you put a volt meter on your battery or alt ?

I would check the voltage across the battery posts first. The interior gauge is not always accurate.

no i have not... anywhere i could get a volt meter without having to buy it? like borrow from autozone or something?

I'm not sure if you can borrow one or not from Autozone, but considering you can get a cheapie one without the bells and whistles for under ten bucks, it wouldn't hurt to have one lying around.

o cool

ok thanks! =]

say the battery ends up reading the same as the gauge, what would be my next course of action?

You can get a small pocket sized digital volt meter from radio shack for cheap. 16V running after warmed up is too high. My red top on a cold start can get almost to the 3rd mark on the gauge, but falls back down after a few minutes. The voltage regulator is internal to the alternator.

more than likeley you have either a bad rectifier or a bad regulator in your alternator.

either get it rebuilt or get a new one....autozone can check it for you. I don't know about dry cell batteries but in a wet cell it can make the batt. explode

awesome awesome... hey thank you guys for all the help, i'll look into it asap.



Jared

Go to autozone and have them check the battery and charging system. They will do it free. The machine they use will load test the battery and test the charging system for a defective alt or regulator

if the charging voltage @ normal temp is around 16v (checking voltage at the battery) definatly the regulator is bad. dont waste the money and buy another alt, just find a starter & alt shop in your area and you can either rebuild or repair yours.

i also have the optima red top battery and have the original 92,000 mile 140 amp alt and when i start my car when its cold it hits that last line before the red on the guage i've put a voltmeter on the battery and voltage is in excess of 15 volts

This is normal when the outside temps are very low.

The Optima is not a "dry cell".... its a conventional wet acid/lead battery that happens to have the lead wrapped in spirals rather than flat plates. Other than that, it observes the same laws of physics as any other lead/acid battery. Optima warns in their FAQ that excessive voltage/charging can cause gassing, even with the "sealed" case. And that gas include hydrogen, and can explode. My neighbor's Infinity Q45 battery exploded a few minutes after he parked it in his garage, causing a fire that consumed a large part of the Q45, part of his garage and caused smoke damage in the house.

When my brothers Jeep was reading high voltage (his gauge was up in the red) it ended up just being very corroded battery connections and old cables. I would make sure those are okay before getting a new alternator.