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Anyone running 16.0-16.2 volts ?? I noticed the other day my voltage is higher and also it does not drop down as much or as low as it did before, regardless of load. The weather here has been a little cooler thought maybe it was triggered by lower ambient temps ?? I looked in the service manual and it does not say much about the ELDs operation, it does say a max of about 15.1 volts though. I have it scheduled in for checking.

Anyone with a voltmeter set-up ever see 16 volts or more ??

Thanks for any inputs.

 
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you dont want voltage that high bud! Electronics is made to work within a range of safe opperating standards. 16v is right at the threshold. Im running a stock alt and im always running 14.8 me thinks except for high loads.

 
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Yeah don't let voltage exceed 14.4. Its bad. big time. especially when anything starts drawing a large current at a higher voltage than it was made for (13.8V for most everything in a car) its going to have some bad consequences.
Get that checked immediatly.

 
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Mine runs at 14.44 steady when above about 1300 or so untill the subs hit
But yeah...higher voltage isn't good...higher ampage is tho.

 
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Anyone with electronics experience will agree that if you keep running a 13.8 v system in a car at 16 v you are asking for some trouble. At only 2.2 v over what its made for, yes it may not damage anything. maybe a sensor will not work as planned. maybe not. but im telling you that it is unsafe. you should not be seeing 16v EVER in a modern car with a 12 v battery

 
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mine avg high is about 13.8, i've once seen 14.0.. its mostly around the 11.9-13.8 range

 
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i think a safe margin is a +- 10%

 
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its normal. when i had a voltmeter hooked up last winter, mine was around 15.5v when i first started the car. summer its lower.

 
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If you run a circuit of any kind above its recommended voltage it will work fine to a certain point, but your chances of component failure are far greater and the length of its life is significantly reduced.

 
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quite correct.
I will put this to real world ICE case model. Look at the specs that your amp is rated to work at, its mostly around 10v-16v. Now you have to remeber that there is an internal inverter inside an amp and it came take it a little better and prob just pop a fuse. But 16v is threshold on how much juice you should be pushing to regular electronic components. I will post up a data sheet for a regular transistor. These kinds of ICs are in all cars and you tell me if you want to keep running that high.

http://www.priory.bromley.sch.uk/stu...f/hef4068b.pdf

This is a regular NAND gate IC. Very basic and used in all electronics. If you look the operational specs for this chip are 5 low 10 norm 15 high. Keep running that high, you will first start seeing heat damage under high load, then complete system failure. We are just trying to warn you.

 
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you guys are all paranoid over nothing.

 
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yeah im only working to be a computer engineer... i suck at electronics. lol.

seriously im just looking out for him. its not good to run the stuff like that for a long time. i just dont want his car breaking in a year when it could be prevented

 
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ya but that is how the car is made. i've been running 4 yrs like that with no probs.

 
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well i think that they're not worried about nothing, it's just the fact they would rather it run at the recommended voltage, electronics to do have a threshold, but the compents will run more stable if it's at what it's built to be at, same reason why we have grounding kits and hyper voltage systems, sure it runs fine without them, but it runs at it's best when it's at the right voltage

 
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Thanks for all the inputs !! Sorry to say it appears to be false alarm, I double checked the output voltage with a REAL !! DMM and the voltage was fine. Sorry for hassle due to cheap aftermarket junk.Thanks again CW

 
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lol :doh:
its ok.
If you want a voltage gauge in the car I suggest you keep to the good names. Like I have an autometer voltmeter and it works pretty accuratly. But cheap gauges are always off.

 
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I have that same problem now. My battery voltage is about 12v, but with teh car running, it's up around 16 volts. What prompted me to check was that my little 175 watt inverter no longer works. It use to work fine. It works with the engine off and in ACC position, but once i start the car, the "battery low" light comes on and it doesn't work.

I'd have considered 16v fine for a car, but now that my inverter doesn't work, i'm worried the other electronics in the car will stop working too.

what do you guys think?

 
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Have you double checked the voltage to confirm it is that high ??

 
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I don't think it's as high as i thought, i went to autozone for them to test and it seemed lie it never hit 16 volts. I guess that isn't my problem. My alternator only tested to 58a, which they said was a little low for the 70a spec. They said that was probably my problem and blamed my 300 watts of amp i have :-/


Anyone else have a problem where the accessory socket has voltage, but doesn't power any devices? All fuses are fine.

Thanks!