13V while driving?

[nwilson44]

Okay guys so my car is having low voltage and its getting on my nerves lol. I just want to fix it! So whats happening is that I'll start it up when its cold and it'll run normal voltage closer to the last white line on the gauge. As the car gets warm the voltage drops and stays at or below 13V no matter how loud I crank up the radio, A/C or whatever! The car has a new Optima battery, and AC delco Alternator. I also just replaced the pigtail on my alternator harness. Any help would be appreciated!

[FIREBIRDV6RAGE]

Have you checked with the actual volts at the batery with a volt meter? It could be that your gauge on the cluster is just going out or a conection to it is messed up some how, not conected right or a wire on it is striped.

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[nwilson44]

Re: 13V while driving?

Have you checked with the actual volts at the batery with a volt meter? It could be that your gauge on the cluster is just going out or a conection to it is messed up some how, not conected right or a wire on it is striped.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

Yeah the auto store has a charging system checker

[ssms5411]

Re: 13V while driving?

Sounds about right for stock, I have a 200 amp ALt. and my volts are in the 13's, I'll double check today when I drive it.

[ssms5411]

Re: 13V while driving?

Also did the big 3 wire upgrade. Which is bigger 4ga. wire from battery to ALt., big 1ga. ground wire to block, and big 4ga. wire from battery to accessory box.

[Docta]

Re: 13V while driving?

I run 2awg wire on all power and ground connections, and 0awg from battery to the front since mine is in the trunk now. On a stock alt, gauge sits in the middle between 13 and the red on the high end.

[nwilson44]

Re: 13V while driving?

So how is the LS1 any different? All the LS1 cars I've driven have the needle way past 13v

[ssms5411]

Re: 13V while driving?

Ls1 is wired differently, also I wouldn't trust the stock gauges they can be deceiving, I would only trust mechanical gauges or scan gauges. On mine it was 12.9 to 13.1 on the scan gauge.

[ssms5411]

Re: 13V while driving?

The 13.0 at idle and when driving with the A/C on it was 12.1 and 12.5 with no voltage boosters. I took my Caspers voltage booster off. My stock gauge never moved.

[nwilson44]

Re: 13V while driving?

The 13.0 at idle and when driving with the A/C on it was 12.1 and 12.5 with no voltage boosters. I took my Caspers voltage booster off. My stock gauge never moved.

I dont like how low it is. I mean the battery puts out 12 volts, wtf is the alternator doing if its at like 12.5? How can I fix this?

[thebeewantsboost]

Re: 13V while driving?

take everybodies advice and use a scanner or real gauge. its normal for it to be higher when its cold.

[htmabe]

Re: 13V while driving?

With car running my stock volt gauge in the dash reads around the high side of 15 volts {Too high imho}but my ohmmeter set to volts on battery reads 14.2 volts. Right about where you would want it while running. Turn the car off and they both read in the 12.4 range. Don't trust the factory gauge too much I think the guy who designed it may have also been involved in the design of the water heater quick disconnects.

[darkflare999]

Re: 13V while driving?

wow this is good info for me!..i always wondered about this voltage problem...and i never understood it...except my gauge needle stays in the orange when the car is warm...and when its cold its way above normal..and the upgrades i have is..2 optima yellow tops..220 amp alt. big 3 upgrade with 0/0 gauge wire and a 24 farad capacitor..with my power probe hooked up to my alt i always get around 13.5-14v.....which doesnt seem good enough for me..btw i have a '94 3.4 camaro...steve what voltage do u get with caspers voltage booster on?...im glad im not the only one with this problem

[ssms5411]

Re: 13V while driving?

wow this is good info for me!..i always wondered about this voltage problem...and i never understood it...except my gauge needle stays in the orange when the car is warm...and when its cold its way above normal..and the upgrades i have is..2 optima yellow tops..220 amp alt. big 3 upgrade with 0/0 gauge wire and a 24 farad capacitor..with my power probe hooked up to my alt i always get around 13.5-14v.....which doesnt seem good enough for me..btw i have a '94 3.4 camaro...steve what voltage do u get with caspers voltage booster on?...im glad im not the only one with this problem

I'm going to hook it back up here in a couple of days, I'll post back with the results. Also this Casper voltage gauge is for L67 cars it hooks up to the TPS and Alt. and boosts voltage by what throttle percent you are at. I modified it to fit my car which was very easy to do.

[nascar24jd]

Okay guys so my car is having low voltage and its getting on my nerves lol. I just want to fix it! So whats happening is that I'll start it up when its cold and it'll run normal voltage closer to the last white line on the gauge. As the car gets warm the voltage drops and stays at or below 13V no matter how loud I crank up the radio, A/C or whatever! The car has a new Optima battery, and AC delco Alternator. I also just replaced the pigtail on my alternator harness. Any help would be appreciated!

The stock gauge is a joke. You need to connect a real VOM to see what is actually going on.