hi.. does anyone know how many volts our alternator puts out during idle. mine was 14.25

 

That's about right. Although a 12V system, alternators typically put out more volts to account for electrical latencies and 'battery inertia.' 14v range is appropriate.

 

thanks huey... autozone said i was cooking my battery at that rate.
chuck

 

13.5v - 14.5v is within RX-8 alternator spec's (edit: 15v is the upper limit per shop manual).

 

*shurgs*

Whoever told ya that, please do us all a favor, report him to the store manager cuz he is misleading all customers.

 

Please do tell the manager!

 

Yeah my alternator was overcharging my battery resulting in a few thousand dollars of damage. You will know when its being overcharged, the acid come out like mine did.

 

Alternator overcharging CAN happen. but the problem here is that those people ---- who the @!@#*)!@# ever that works in that Autozone ... if he doesnt know anything about "that" Alternator, he shouldn't give his 0.02 at all. know what I mean ? 14.25 is perfectly fine.

Report his *** to the manager or something. Not like anything Gonna happen I think. but I think u can just walk back to that Autozone and make a scene outa it so all other customers know wtf is going on.

 

Yeah, but if you believe what guys at Autozone tell you then you need to be slapped anyway.

 

There was a time I forgot what my fog light size was when I was in Autozone and I asked those ppl ... DONT SLAP ME !

 

Yikes! Sounds brutal.

I once had an overcharged battery that kind of exploded. All it did was blow the caps off the filler holes and smolder. Got a nice puff of smoke coming out around the hood. When I popped the hood for a look, the caps were gone and the case was bulged outward.

After putting in a new battery, I checked the charging system. I think it was around 16 volts. Put in a new regulator.

It was on my wife's old AMC Hornet, so if there was any damage to the car there was no way to tell.

Ken

 

 

It doesn't take too long to figure out who at the Autozone(or any other store) knows what the hell they are talking about and who doesn't.

I've actually got a really good guy at mine. He's proved himself to me........even though I still take it all for what it's worth. I will trust him more than most....albeit, I haven't had to use him for anything related to my 8.

 

My wife's Ford Fiesta did that once. Driving down the road it smelled like tomatoes. I was more fortunate. The damage was just the alternator and the battery.