Alternator going?

[Ernie70]

So this past weekend , I had the battery go dead. It was 6 years old and was slowly starting to weaken. So Sat I purchased the exact same battery , (Interstate) to replace it . Starts great now. But last night on the way home from work I noticed the Volts reading 13.0-13.5. Now as long as I had the car I remember the volts always running low 13.9 and average in the 14v range. This morning after starting the car , the volts start at 13.5 going up to 14.1. Then as I back out of the drive way down the street , the volts drop to 12.9. Then stay at a steady 12.6 all the way to work.
Is this a sign the Alternator is now going out? Is there possible damage from the new battery , or the 2 times I had to jump it to first get it home, then to the shop? Or is it just time for the Alternator to go.? Never had an Alternator go on me within 50k miles on the car lol.
Sidenote , its the v6 1LT motor and I did check the connections after the battery was installed , and all were good and tight.

[gtstorey]

Normal for the voltage to move around on these charging systems. The fact it was staying elevated before the battery change was more a symptom of a failing battery.

https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showp...28&postcount=7

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Originally Posted by gtstorey

Normal for the voltage to move around on these charging systems. The fact it was staying elevated before the battery change was more a symptom of a failing battery.

https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showp...28&postcount=7

Thanks gt, I was going to post that, you beat me to it. And another thing ernie, when ever I replaced a battery with a new one, they are usually not fully charged, I always put mine on a charger and charge it up fully before I install it. The last AGM battery I installed a few months ago took 6 hours on the charger to be fully charged. They lose power sitting on the shelves, and wherever they came from.

[Ernie70]

One of the guys at my work who is the mechanic for all our trucks , has a battery tester and load tester. Battery tested good , but , when testing the CCA which is 850 , it came back around 480. So , he recomended putting a charger on it to get it up to full. Like you guys said it could of had a long shelf life and lost charge. (hoping)
For for now I am letting it sit on the charger for a few hours , and see how it is on the way home. Seeing an alternator I don't think is supposed to FULLY charge a battery , here is t hoping it just needed a lil more juice.

[Mouse330]

Its called The Electrical power management system, It performs 3 functions:

monitors the battery voltage and estimates the battery condition, takes corrective actions by boosting idle speeds, and adjusting the regulated voltage, performs diagnostics and driver notification.

There are also 6 modes of operation
Battery Sulfation Mode
Charge Mode
Fuel Economy Mode
Headlamp Mode
Start Up Mode
Voltage Reduction Mode.
The voltage can range from 12.5-15.5 volts. If you are not getting messages in the driver information center then the system is functioning properly.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Originally Posted by Mouse330

Its called The Electrical power management system, It performs 3 functions:

monitors the battery voltage and estimates the battery condition, takes corrective actions by boosting idle speeds, and adjusting the regulated voltage, performs diagnostics and driver notification.

There are also 6 modes of operation
Battery Sulfation Mode
Charge Mode
Fuel Economy Mode
Headlamp Mode
Start Up Mode
Voltage Reduction Mode.
The voltage can range from 12.5-15.5 volts. If you are not getting messages in the driver information center then the system is functioning properly.

Great info Mouse!! Yeah I gathered all this when I was researching my battery issues back when, and came across all the info on how our systems work. Interesting to say the least. Thanks.