Voltage / Charge on battery before start up? (4200)

[Maser Sod]

Simplest test by far, as already pointed out by Grinzz, is to put a multimeter across the battery after the car has been sat idle for a day or two and see what it reads. I can't imagine the dash gauge is especially well calibrated.

Different batteries have different characteristics - they have been the chief source of headaches for me in 8 or so years of Maser ownership. The 'Flat In a Minute' FIAMM OEM batteries are well known for playing up.

 

[Grinzzz]

Not sure if the actual voltage gauge is the same as the 3200 but these are terrible meters. Get a simple voltmeter and check the voltage on the battery itself. If the actual voltages are ok and the charging light does not come on and it starts, just ignore the gauge in the dash. I more or less ignore my volt gauge as it does not make any sense and reads pants most of the time.

I wouldnt ignore it, just accept that the values it reads are a bit off. If, for instance, it started showing a volt or two lower than usual when the engine was running I'd get the multimeter out to double check. They're probably accurate enough, just not calibrated particularly well.

 

[BennyD]

I did over 200 miles in mine today and I can't remember looking at the volt gauge once. TBH. If aren't having starting problems I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Grinzzz]

I normally take a look over the dials when I start her up and just about to shut down. I'd have thought instrument scanning would have come naturally, Ian.

 

[BennyD]

Nah, the autopilot does it all and the aircraft lets us know when something is amiss. That way we can spend all our time reading the papers and chatting up the girls!!

 

[davy83]

I wouldnt ignore it, just accept that the values it reads are a bit off. If, for instance, it started showing a volt or two lower than usual when the engine was running I'd get the multimeter out to double check. They're probably accurate enough, just not calibrated particularly well.

Maybe some of the volt meters are better than others, but seriously the meter on my car has a mind of its own. It has far too much averaging so it does not respond very quickly so when you look at it its telling you the average of what happened some time ago. i would agree if it dropped off the bottom or top scale i would probably get worried. I guess I was indicating that it is so slow to respond and also quite inaccurate in terms of actual voltage measurement that it is very difficult to actually tell if things in your car are ok from it.

 

[Parisien]

Its a bit like the SD readout of the clutch.................+/- 99.9%....


P

 

[Grinzzz]

Sounds odd. They all average, theres quite a lot of capacitance in a car but even so they power line is quite dirty with lots of small spikes and drops. When they stick voltmeters in modern cars they also put a capacitor in across the voltmeter (if the meter or car doesnt have enough capacitance, most do). This stops the "worrying" jumps and drops in the voltmeter. Yours sounds like either the capacitance is too high or the voltmeter has somehow lost a few windings in it's coils. You've not fitted a "bangin' hifi" have you? I know they stick some silly huge capacitors in with silly amp sizes; that could cause it