Low voltage no charge 22ve

[MexTex]

2010 Tige 22ve. I’m having an issue with the batteries not charging. I started out the day at 12 volts and the voltage slowly dropped down to 11.3. Low voltage warning was going off. Radio cut out, taps turned off. I replaced both batteries and cleaned all terminals. Any ideas what the problem could be? Alternator?


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[Jetdriver]

You can always get out the voltmeter and test the output of the alternator with the boat on a fake a lake or on the water. You’ll need to have it around 3k rpms to get a decent voltage reading you won’t get much at idle.

[chpthril]

12V on the gauge with the engine running is basically static battery voltage and not alternator output. Defenitely need to test charging system with volt meter. Can be alternator, cable/wire, belt or isolator.

[Bamer]

You can always get out the voltmeter and test the output of the alternator with the boat on a fake a lake or on the water. You’ll need to have it around 3k rpms to get a decent voltage reading you won’t get much at idle.

3k? That seems really high. Should be 14V at or just above idle right? Am I missing something


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[skiguy]

12V on the gauge with the engine running is basically static battery voltage and not alternator output. Defenitely need to test charging system with volt meter. Can be alternator, cable/wire, belt or isolator.

I’m having a similar issue so jumping in.

My alternator output at idle (600 rpm) is 11.9v. What’s weird is that same voltage is being fed to the power bus under the helm. My perfect pass keeps restarting due to low voltage and stereo too. Shouldn’t my battery be providing 12v when the alternator isn’t? Where could my problem lie?


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[chpthril]

I’m having a similar issue so jumping in.

My alternator output at idle (600 rpm) is 11.9v. What’s weird is that same voltage is being fed to the power bus under the helm. My perfect pass keeps restarting due to low voltage and stereo too. Shouldn’t my battery be providing 12v when the alternator isn’t? Where could my problem lie?


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A battery does not generate voltage, simply stores it. So unless the alternator is supplying above the level of the battery, the battery will be depleted by the loads, and continue to drop.

if you measure the battery voltage prior to starting the engine, and the voltage is same or less once the engine is running, your alternator is not supplying the battery for some reason.

[skiguy]

A battery does not generate voltage, simply stores it. So unless the alternator is supplying above the level of the battery, the battery will be depleted by the loads, and continue to drop.

if you measure the battery voltage prior to starting the engine, and the voltage is same or less once the engine is running, your alternator is not supplying the battery for some reason.

I think the alternator must be feeding the battery. If I raise the rpm ‘s a couple hundred or so and I put my volt meter on the battery, I’m showing approx 13v (roughly mirroring the alternator output voltage). My helm bus voltage jumps too and PP stabilizes and starts working. This issue occurs at idle when the alternator is supplying less than 12v.


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[chpthril]

I think the alternator must be feeding the battery. If I raise the rpm ‘s a couple hundred or so and I put my volt meter on the battery, I’m showing approx 13v (roughly mirroring the alternator output voltage). My helm bus voltage jumps too and PP stabilizes and starts working. This issue occurs at idle when the alternator is supplying less than 12v.


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A tired battery or degrading cable can cause low output at idle.

[skiguy]

A tired battery or degrading cable can cause low output at idle.

I’m thinking my batteries are good - Blue Top Optima AGM both less than 3 yrs. I would look at cables first because of this. What’s the best way to ID a degrading cable?

I was checking voltages at the alternator, battery and helm bus. They seemed to match pretty closely to what I was seeing at the alternator. My first test did show a .2v diff between alternator and battery, not sure if that’s significant. I’m no expert with the volt meter but noticed a lot of jumping around of the voltage - always in a range .4-.5 volt range. Occasionally got a consistent reading.


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[skiguy]

An update to the thread I hijacked [emoji11]...

I did a full voltage drop test of the entire charging system. All the cables checked out. After testing I did take the time to buff and treat all connectors and posts with an antioxidant lube. During the testing I noticed a couple things

1) I kept hearing a recurring clicking noise from the perfect pass controller under the dash. While this was going on I was seeing the low voltage at the helm power bus and the PP gauge trying to boot up/start in an endless loop. Bumping the throttle to increase alternator output would stabilize the voltage and then PP would start. With the engine off and the key in the ON position I could hear the PP servo winding (like normal), but what wasn’t normal was that it didn’t seem to stop trying to tension the throttle cable. It may have been bound. I ran a quick servo check - unwound the the servo manually about 1 turn and then turned the key to ON. Voila! The servo started acting normal - I tensioned the throttle cable and stopped. I repeated the servo test and it worked fine again. The rest of the session I did not see the low voltage issue. My hypothesis is that the servo was bound for some reason and it was drawing way higher amp load then normal. I will be keeping an eye on the servo when I take her out for our first cruise of 2019. Fingers crossed it was just a one time thing. I do recall last season a hose clamp breaking on the pressure side of my water pump and a ton of water getting sprayed across the back of my engine compartment, roughly about the time this issue started.

2) My battery voltage was suspiciously low. I’m running a pair of blue top Optima AGM batteries. Ran the charger for about an hour on each battery Friday night. Voltage check right after charging was approx 12.2v (I know it’s not an accurate reading right after charging as they need to settle down a bit and some voltage loss is to be expected). However, I checked both batteries early the next morning and they were both around 11.8v. I have an old battery charger, max output is 6amps. I charged both the batteries a lot through the course of Saturday and some Sunday morning. The max voltage I could get Bat #1 to was 12.55v - after it settled it measured around 12.25v. Very weird. I’m wondering if my charger isn’t “smart” enough to accurately charge AGM batteries? This thing is friggin ancient and seems to do some basic resistance or voltage checks and automatically reduces output accordingly as the battery nears full charge. The only thing is these batteries never were near the 22.6 - 12.7v expected range. I’m thinking of borrowing a friends charger that has an AGM mode to see if that helps. I took a lot of stats and noted a couple things.

A) With PP servo behaving, I was getting about 13.7v at the battery at idle (600 rpm)- better than what I was seeing previously but not sure if this is considered normal voltage. I would be curious if anyone has any input on what they experience?

B). With my battery charger running I could hear the ACR relay activate. What was unexpected was before the batteries were joined charge voltage was in the high 13v range. When joined, Voltage dropped into the mid 12v range... and then the ACR would isolate (per their design as it’s my understanding they need to see 13v for 2 minutes before joining the batteries). So basically just a big ineffective loop. I had to disconnect the ACR to get a halfway decent charge on the batteries. I’m having doubts about my charger not being up to the task? Or maybe voltage on the second battery was too low (measured about 12.2v at the time) and the charger couldn’t compensate...?






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[chpthril]

@Skiguy

I do not think your charger has enough output, both voltage and amp capacity, to effectively charge a dead Optima. You need an Optima specific charger or ones with a "hi-output AGM" setting.

[skiguy]

@Skiguy

I do not think your charger has enough output, both voltage and amp capacity, to effectively charge a dead Optima. You need an Optima specific charger or ones with a "hi-output AGM" setting.

Thanks Mike. I agree. I purchased a CTEK 7002 based on good reviews for AGM batteries. I'm going to pull the batteries and charge them individually and see what happens.