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Old 01-05-2012, 10:56 PM
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BrianX54.4is BrianX54.4is is offline
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In my experience I have never seen my voltage go beyond 13.6V and it does fluctuate as low as 11.9 when slowing to a stop before recovering again so I think your readings are "normal". When my battery charge gets low I also experience a few gremlins like spurious warning lights that soon clear and headlights staying on momentarily after shutting down the engine.

My thoughts are 1 step at a time starting with the easiest / lowest cost job.
1. Your battery owes you nothing (4 years service with some deep discharging and subjected to high temps). Change it out.
2. Monitor for improvement - if charging/battery drain is the issue, your problems will be back within a couple of weeks.
3. Check for excessive drain on the battery when the car is shut down. After 3-4 minutes the current draw should be no more than 50mA. (The car can still draw 3Amps or so for the first few minutes after shutting down untill all controllers and equipment have shut down to "sleep". Some electrical mods can prevent the aux electrics from "going to sleep" causing battery drain so check all your aftermarket electrical mods.

I doubt that the votage regulator is your problem (as it is regulating and you do not have the charging warning light!) so avoid the alternator changeout untlil the above steps are done.
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