What is the volt Meter in my Cayenne Telling Me

[majordad]

How does the Volt meter work and what is it telling me ? It reads 14V at the moment when driving, is that good or bad ? The battery went flat recently , I hope due to the very cold weather and being idle for over two weeks and not being driven much begore that but I'm a bit worried. If the battery is Kaput what reading would I see. There is no reading at all when you just insert the key, it needs to be running to get a reading.

[996ttalot]

majordad said:

How does the Volt meter work and what is it telling me ? It reads 14V at the moment when driving, is that good or bad ? The battery went flat recently , I hope due to the very cold weather and being idle for over two weeks and not being driven much begore that but I'm a bit worried. If the battery is Kaput what reading would I see. There is no reading at all when you just insert the key, it needs to be running to get a reading.

It should be reading around 13.8 so showing 14 would suggest it is okay. The fact that you have not driven it much suggests the reason for the battery issue. In fact no driving is better than a short journey sometimes. The engine does need to be running to see the voltage.

However...just because it is reading 14v does not mean the alternator is working correctly. Switch on the aircon, radio, lights etc, then rev the car up and down and watch the gauge. If it is dropping to mid 12v or below, then you could have an issue with the alternator. A multimeter would confirm this. If you are having a problem with the alternator then you would also expect other codes within the DME itself, such as low voltage issues. This could be checked by any garage or someone with a durametric reader etc.

If the alternator is okay then the battery itself may not be holding a charge, in which case a replacement will be needed.

From what you have described it sounds much likely that you need to drive it more. Colder weather does affect the battery. Try the switching on everything test first.