The electrical guage in my car has been reading down around 10-11 volts when I'm going down the highway, but seems to be normal while driving in town. The car cranks fine and hasn't caused any problems yet. I thought it was maybe because I was running the air conditioner, but today the AC wasn't on and it was still giving me the same reading. Would this be the battery or the alternator or both, or could it just be my terminals on my battery are corroded and need cleaned? Turning the heater fan off seems to help it out a little. The stereo doesn't seem to affect it. Any thoughts?

 

it could be a number of things including the 1's u mentioned. try cleaning the terminals first and see if that helps any. have your battery tested at the parts store. u can also have them check the alternator, or u can test it at home by doing the following: get the tool u use to disconnect the battery terminal. turn ur car on. while it's running, disconnect one of the terminals (either one, preferably the neg.) if the car dies that means the alternator is not charging and the car is running of the battery only which is bad. if it stays running then it's still good. if it's bad, make sure u get the battery fully recharged before u put the new alt in. i recommend u getting the batt. tested if u have to change the alt just to make sure it wasn't drained too much. good luck...hopes this helps ya out!

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"WARNING: Objects in mirror are about to disappear VERY quickly!"

 

Does the dash voltmeter agree with a separate handheld meter?

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Later,
Vader
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"What a Day..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

I think the gauge works, but I am planning on checking it as soon as I have some time. Right when I start the car the reading on the gauge is low, around 10-11, and when going down the highway it goes down. In town, however, it stays just below 13, but it always was just above 13. I took the car to the parts store and they said the alternator was charging fine and that the battery looked pretty good. I'm going to clean up the terminals, put the charger on the battery overnight and see where that gets me and go from there. Thanks for the advice.