Alternator wiring diagram required for Citron Xsara Picasso 2007 1.6 prtrol car.

[tonyfay]

Help required, I'm looking for the alternator Wiring Diagram for my 2007 Citron Xsara Picasso 1.6 petrol car
with intermittent alternator charging issues. I changed the alternator 4 weeks ago which worked but now the intermittent charging issue has returned again which left me stranded at the roadside. The Vin No is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]
Thanks for reading. Tony

[Kees]

Did you buy a new one, or from the scrap yard?

[mickthemaverick]

Can you post the RPO number?

[tonyfay]

I bought a new alternator from a motor factors.

Sorry Mickthemaverick, what is the RPO number ??

[RichardW]

RP number is the date of manufacture - it's probably on the tyre pressure sticker on the driver's A or B pillar.

How many wires to the alternator? I'd be surprised if this was a 'smart' charging system - so probably just the main heavy duty output cable and smaller exciter cable.

[mickthemaverick]

As Richard says the RPO number is dating your vehicle, I need to enter it into my Sedre backup system before it will allow me to browse diagrams for your car.

This is an example of the sticker from a C3 with the RPO number framed in red. It is a five digit number beginning with a 1

BFTW

[tonyfay]

Thanks , please see the photo of my tyre pressure tag , sorry for the delay I had to go out.

The alternator only has two connections ,
The heavy duty cable , which has the battery terminal voltage of 12.8 v with or without the engine running measured on a multi-meter, and the small thin red cable on the two pin connector that is plugged into the alternator.

[tonyfay]

RPO Sticker

[wheeler]

I changed the alternator 4 weeks ago which worked but now the intermittent charging issue has returned again.

Do they have Euro Car Parts in Ireland & if so did you use one of their junk own brand alternators? If so you done well to get the 4 weeks out of it.
As said its a very basic circuit, dont discount the replacement alternator being faulty.
Is the belt tension good?
When checking the charging voltage on the main positive cable of the alternator have you tried using the alternator casing as an earth?

[mickthemaverick]

I'm sorry to say Tony that I have not been able to find the charging circuit diagram on the Sedre Backup which I have. I am new to using it and while I found a wiring diagram which may have the alternator on it I could not find a key showing what each of the labels meant so the diagram is pretty useless without that. Hopefully someone else with more experience will be able to sort that out for you.

[RichardW]

RP number is 11182 - so it was built on 21 June 2007.

Does the battery light come on on the dash? If you supply 12V to the small terminal on the alternator via a bulb does it start charging?

[tonyfay]

Thanks mickthemaverick for trying ,

Richard the charge light did come on when the battery was low and then it might not light again for a few days ,/ not really giving a positive indication until just before the car died from flat battery. its a RHINO automotive part ALT-8213 90 amp

I was hoping to find out where the thin red wire was fed from . the voltage appears to be floating about 7 v ~ 10v dc

I will try feeding the exciter terminal from battery with a bulb in series tomorrow. .

wheeler, The belt tension is fine and i have used alternator as earth

I will report back tomorrow, many thanks .

[xantia_v6]

I believe that this is a smart alternator, so the small wire is NOT an exciter terminal, it is a LIN bus digital control line.

Try running the engine with the alternator control line disconnected. If it is a smart alternator, the charging voltage should jump up to 14.5V and the engine management light will come on. If it is not a smart alternator, then the alternator probably wont charge at all, but there will be no engine management light.

If it is a smart alternator, then I would replace the battery without going any further, as a battery with reduced capacity (even though able to start the car after charging) will cause the alternator to under-charge the battery.

Component codes can be found in the pages linked from viewtopic.php?t=80489

The diagram that I believe to be applicable is:

Oops this diagram is for a C4 Picasso, my error, see next post by wheeler.

[wheeler]

As above the alternator exciter wire is not like on a 'traditional' alternator, it goes to the ECU which has some control of it. However i dont think that diagram above is even from a Xsara Picasso as it appears to me to be from a full CAN vehicle & the Xsara Picasso was never full CAN.

I think this should be the diagram for this car
Alternator is component 1020

[xantia_v6]

Wheeler you are right, I pulled up a diagram for a C4 Picasso by mistake.