Official blog of 'War Horse' (My Xantia HDi). It lives to fight another day!

[Rhothgar]

Well that didn't last long! Lives to fight another day? Lives to give me grief for another day more like!!!

Driving along today and came to some traffic lights and noticed that idle was at 1250rpm. I reckon the needle must have whacked its stop hard enough to nudge it clockwise a bit.

Tomorrow's job if I can be bothered is to take the binnacle out and reset the needle position whilst idling.

Maybe I should let the car die or put it out of its misery. Poor War Horse can only like its wounds for so long.

[darbuck]

Unfortunately Roger Sometimes you just have to accept it's run it's race and it's time to move on.

[Vic Evans]

Well that didn't last long! Lives to fight another day? Lives to give me grief for another day more like!!!

Driving along today and came to some traffic lights and noticed that idle was at 1250rpm. I reckon the needle must have whacked its stop hard enough to nudge it clockwise a bit.

Tomorrow's job if I can be bothered is to take the binnacle out and reset the needle position whilst idling.

Maybe I should let the car die or put it out of its misery. Poor War Horse can only like its wounds for so long.

The original dash on my old Pug 806 used to do that & crept up & up if allowed.
Switching the ignition on/of in quick succession always 'jumped' the needle back to zero & a few weeks later it was back to the same old tricks.
I always thought it was a sticky bearing but eventually solved the problem by getting the dodgy dash LEDs fixed when the fixer also freed up the speedo & rev counters.

[Rp0thejester]

If a horse has run its course then my MIL wouldn't be here, more unoriginal parts than original! Can't give up because of a few hiccups.

[darbuck]

I agree we're all running old yolks and it's great to be able to do it but when it's costing you time and money every day its only a matter of time until you miss something catastrophic. You must reach a point where you either retire it or rebuild it, otherwise you are putting yourself and other road users in danger.

[Rhothgar]

Unfortunately Roger Sometimes you just have to accept it's run it's race and it's time to move on.

WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!

Speedo already fixed.

[darbuck]

Delighted Roger. Is she alright apart from that.She had been going you a lot of trouble. Understandable given the age.

[Rhothgar]

Delighted Roger. Is she alright apart from that.She had been going you a lot of trouble. Understandable given the age.

Yes. All good. Needs some welding now.

Perfectly good car. Just run in at 205k

[Rp0thejester]

Delighted Roger. Is she alright apart from that.She had been going you a lot of trouble. Understandable given the age.

I found myself staring at the mother in law when I read that.

[Rhothgar]

Cannot believe it's 4 weeks since I last posted.

Well. The other day I could swear I could smell like burning friction material. Put my hand down by the front wheels but no heat was emanating.

So today I go for a short spin to go and check on the Harley before renewing the insurance tomorrow. Left my mate's and noticed that the battery light was glowing very faintly. Also noticed that the blower had stopped working, the ABS light had come on and a few other lights. Windscreen wipers seemed really slow too. Not ideal given the weather today.

Went to see another mate to pick up a washer for my bicycle headset and decided that I wasn't going to stop the car as I reckoned it wouldn't restart then driving down a main road, I killed the engine and tried to start it - NOTHING! Raised the clutch and fired the engine back up.

Pondering as I was driving - what could it be?

Once home, put the bonnet up and checked the battery voltage with the engine running. 9.2V! Alternator surely cannot be failing as I only did some work on that 3 years ago.

Anyway, here is what transpired (there is a nice little video link at the bottom of this post):-

https://www.icloud.com/photos/#01ajwFxU ... PBOkweT1CQ

[CitroJim]

Oh dear

[Rhothgar]

Oh dear

Indeed Jim. Made me wonder m, in some small way, just low long it took to get so bad and what what effect that had on the battery.

Measured after repair it was producing 14.1V at the battery and 14.22V at the alternator.

It was obviously still functional right up until last week or the week before. I cannot recall last time I checked charging rate but seem to recall it was few quarts down maybe 13.2V if memory serves me correctly.

[CitroJim]

It could have been like that for a while Roger... Looks like there's still a bit of voltage drop going on, not much but just enough to warrant investigation given how many amps can flow when the alternator is busy charging a well-discharged battery...

A good alternator into a good battery will show 14.4V on charge and a good battery will show a terminal voltage of 13.8V a while after coming off-charge.

I'd expect to see 14.4V across the battery with the engine running and this should hardly vary from idle to full-chat... It may swing about a bit on sharp accelerations but should quickly settle...

[Rhothgar]

It could have been like that for a while Roger... Looks like there's still a bit of voltage drop going on, not much but just enough to warrant investigation given how many amps can flow when the alternator is busy charging a well-discharged battery...

A good alternator into a good battery will show 14.4V on charge and a good battery will show a terminal voltage of 13.8V a while after coming off-charge.

I'd expect to see 14.4V across the battery with the engine running and this should hardly vary from idle to full-chat... It may swing about a bit on sharp accelerations but should quickly settle...

There is clearly some more residual corrosion in the cable I would hazard.

[mickthemaverick]

I'd agree with you there Roger, swap out the cable to be safe.