low voltage on guage

[steve j]

I`ve got a few niggly jobs to do on my S2 and one of them is to figure out why the volts gauge is reading low. The car has a new battery and runs fine. Before I took the body off, the gauge was fine and showing 12 plus volts. Does anyone know where the gauge is connected ? I`m guessing it gets the reading from the alternator

[S2Mike]

I dont mean to type something you already know,but, the volts reading only rises after the revs have reached around 2500, after starting. Then the reading should settle at 12-13 volts.
Apologies if you knew this and had a deeper problem .

[steve j]

S2Mike said:

I dont mean to type something you already know,but, the volts reading only rises after the revs have reached around 2500, after starting. Then the reading should settle at 12-13 volts.
Apologies if you knew this and had a deeper problem .

Cheers Mike, the charge lamp on the dash illuminates under 2,500 rpm, it goes out once the revs are higher. This suggests the alternator is charging, but my volts still read only about 10 to 11. I`ll try the wiring diagram again to see if I can see where the gauge gets its power

[phillpot]

Sometimes I think that gauge is more trouble than it's worth?

On mine if I have lights, wipers and heater blower on it drops alarmingly! But everything is working, it's charging, good battery etc. etc.

[shaun s3c]

I had this problem,traced it to a bad connection on alternator

[shaun s3c]

I had this problem,traced it to a bad connection on alternator

[Deeman]

Mine was faulty alternator diodes. Even though the charge light went out

[shaun s3c]

I had this problem,traced it to a bad connection on alternator

[themee]

Driving in torrential rain Saturday I had wipers full blast,still couldnt see a thing, heater on to stop steaming up, and lights on full. Had slight missfire, looked at guage and I was down to 11.5 v Brand new battery!