BMW E36 Forum

Greetings everyone! i`m having a problem with my alternator, that just doesn`t charge the battery! on low revs the warning light glows normally, but over 3k revs its dimming a little bit, as there would be some kind of charging just not strong enough! So i changed the regulator with brushes that were a little worn, but nothing changed at all... and when im checking voltage at alternator with multimeter [like the service manual says] at the B+ terminal its shoving 12.6 volts as it should be from the battery, but at terminal D+ [with ingition switch ON] its showing just 1.6 volts...
Since the manual doesnt state what voltage should be present at D+ terminal, im curious if it shouldnt be the same 12.6 volts as from battery or is 1.6V enough? any ideas would be appreciated... cheers

P.S. The car is 323i `96 Coupe

All I can find in a quick look in the bently manual is it just says there should be voltage there not how much but since the D+ comes from the dash light it my be lower as long as there is voltage have you done a load test on the alternator ?? to make sure it is working
run the engine at about 2000 rpm and turn on all the electrics you can (lights fan rear window defogger etc) and check voltage should be above 12 volts.

Yea... i was looking in the same Bentley`s manual, but it seems that there is a small mistake in the manual! and the guy who found the problem says he`s getting only 0.8 volts on D+ so i guess thats something like normal...
http://tech.bentleypublishers.com/threa ... eID=281169

Anyway, i swapped the whole alternator and that finally solved the problem!

Thanks for looking into my problem... Cheers!

Your welcome arn't electrical probs fun ..... not.... anyway someone with the same prob might read this and know what to do about it now

i got a 1.8i and having similar problems, I have had both my battery and alternator tested and they showed very good and 13.6v charge but the battery is not holding a lot of charge I have tried different battery's same thing happens, could it be something drawing to much power or a bad earth somewhere.

any help would be appreciated cheers