I am drinking a wonderful hot cup of coffee and trying to warm back up. Today started out early and Sveta and I were on our way to see her mother. We had 4 bags of goodies to drop off and it had been awhile since we had gone by to say hi. That trip never happened…
On Saturday I fired up the Volga and got her ready to take a day trip all around Moscow. A trip through Moscow is always 99% of the time a whole day affair. So I always make sure that the car is in order. On Saturday everything was running and working fantastic. That was Saturday…
Today is Sunday: I went out a fired up the Volga and let it warm up for about an hour. It was -13 degrees Celsius and the old girl needs a few more minutes to get loosened up. We took off and all seemed good. Sveta and I stopped at McDonald’s and got some breakfast sandwiches. After the breakfast is when I felt a change in the car. The car always starts the same way and method but today after breakfast, she turned over slowly, then the engine caught and purred…
That triggered the alert button in my head. We had already traveled far enough so the battery should have been fully charged after a real cold starting, but I realized that it was not. I saw that the alternator seemed to be weak at idle on voltage output and when I turned on the heater fan and headlights. The output dropped considerably. But revving the engine did not help the situation. We took off down the road and I gave Sveta the warning that we may be turning back home very quickly… (We ended up turning back and got the Volga home.)
I found that with the car idling and all extra accessories turned off the car would charge the battery, but weakly. But turn on lights and other necessary items and it dropped into a discharge mode. But what was even worse was that at highway speeds it discharged faster. So I knew we were on borrowed time as long as the battery held out. Since it is law to have headlights on and life would really suck with no heat going…
We went back home…
Then Sveta hopped a train and went to see her mom while I worked on the car. (Now working on a car at -11 degrees Celsius is no fun.) I ended up charging the battery and checking the voltage on the Alternator output and it showed my fears. It is acting like one or two of the 6 diodes is bad. Other words the alternator is going out…
I have replaced this alternator before but it is a month out of warranty. At that time the original alternator was still in the car and was just plain worn out. So I will be walking to the auto parts store and getting a new one. Then I have the fun of deciding which country to buy from. I can get one from Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus or China. Cost varies from 2000 rubles to 6000 rubles. The one that I had last time was from Ukraine! So maybe I will try one from Russia… 🙂
I think that all this will have to wait at this point. It is too cold and I am chilled to the bones. I am going to drink this hot coffee and maybe have a couple of cups of hot tea also. Then I am going to bore you will the details of my day… 😉
Hope you are having a great weekend…
Windows to Russia!
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