Watch your charging system

I wanted to relate a recent experience I had and perhaps save someone else a hassle some where down the road.

My wife and I have been driving a Volvo 670 with a Cummins motor in it for the past week (our normal truck has an idling issue).We discovered this truck had a glitch when the speedometer, odometer, and cruise control quit working after a while. The tach still worked so we made our run to Miami and back and had the "glitch" fixed.

Later in the week while on the road this same truck stopped charging the batteries. I contacted road service and was instructed to stop at a truck stop and have it looked at. The TA on I95 at exit 89 in Virginia looked at the charging system and concluded we needed a new alternator. About 3 hours later we got a bill for over $500.00. The battery light still was flickering off and on and I pointed it out to the mechanic but he said it was due to the batteries being weak and the new alternator would charge them back up in no time.

Sure enough the battery light went out a couple of hours later but showed an alert that the charging system was in "high voltage mode." We figured this must be normal seeing the batteries were older than the alternator and the alternator was trying to recharge them.

The following day we returned to work and began our normal run to Florida. Everything seemed fine until we made it into Georgia. We again got the message about the charging system being in high voltage mode. We pulled into a truck stop for fuel and shut it down. When exiting the truck we smelled a rather strong smell by the drivers door. Kinda like a rotten egg smell. I did not equate this odor with the batteries. The volt meter on the digital readout was showing 14.5 so we shut down for the night to let things cool down we left the truck off during the night. By morning the voltmeter was back down to 13.5. Good to go we thought.

We started out first thing in the morning and by 1300 we had another alert on the dash saying high voltage. I scrolled through the digital displays to call up the voltmeter and was stunned to see it at 17.2! Apparently the brand new alternator had a defective regulator. I attempted to contact road service but they had all gone home for the weekend (one of the down sides of working for a small carrier). I contacted a friend who advised me the truck was in jeopardy of burning up. I relayed this info to dispatch via the computer and left messages at the normal "on call number."

Having no further help available I decided to disconnect the alternator and continue running the load to Miami. We made it to Miami and half way back up to Jacksonville when it began to get dark. We had been running without a/c or radio all afternoon in an attempt to preserve our dwindling power supply. By 1945 last night we decided to pull into a truck stop and try to get help. We stopped at exit 244 Edgewater Florida (a billboard on the interstate mentioned a truck service) and found the so called "truck service" was closed and was not a truck stop at all. I figured I might be able to hook the alternator back up for a quick recharge and make it out of Florida or at least up to a "real truck stop."

I shut the truck off and re-hooked up the alternator. The batteries were too weak to restart the engine. I disconnected the alternator again and then decided to inspect the batteries closely. Figuring we might have 1 dead one I could single it out and maybe get going again. No such luck!

The batteries were all wet and apparently had been leaking. I finally got someone on the phone from work and we were able to get a service truck out with 4 new batteries and another alternator a little after midnight. 3 hours later we had the truck running but had all kinds of codes coming up. a/c need maintenance, communication error with ECU, etc.

Apparently the high voltage cooked the ECU. The truck will idle but will not accelerate at all. We couldn't drive the truck after all... We sweated through the night and got in touch with road service again at 0830. A tow truck was ordered.

Now we are sitting in Ormond Beach Fl at a hotel while my truck is on a wrecker waiting till morning to go to the Volvo dealer in Jacksonville. Looks like the company may have to rent us a truck to continue our run.

The point of this story? To alert other drivers to be watchful for "high voltage" warnings especially in Volvo's and if you smell a "rotten egg" smell by your drivers door you may want to visually inspect your batteries to see if any are leaking.

 

I have heard of electrical systems going as high as 24 volts in some of the older trucks so I am never sure just how high is "high" in regard to the charging system.

The truck has been towed to Tom Nehl of Jacksonville Florida as of this morning. The tech is inspecting the ecu right now as I am typing this. I am surprised they are getting on it so fast. I was really expecting them to blow me off for a couple of days and "work me in" after they take care of other trucks that may have been here since last week.

Of course they may just diagnose the problem and tell me how much it will cost before they agree to actually "fix it."

The thing that really stumps me about the whole problem is the alternator was just installed Thursday night and was supposed to be new.

Notarps4me was correct about the voltage regulator as well. They are now built into the alternator. I cannot say whether this was a good idea or bad 1 as this is a first time experience for me.

I will post an update as soon as I find out more.


PS. The following quote helps me confirm that I was not imagining things in regard to the awful rotten egg smell and now I know why! I hope others take note of this little factoid and file it away for future reference, just in case they too smell it at some point, they will know what it means.

rjones56Sounds like the voltage regulator stuck.The rotten egg smell comes from the batteries being "cooked" by overcharging.This boils the electrolyte in the batteries and makes them wet.

 

The service tech has just informed me that the ECU is fine. Apparently the road service tech that brought out the new alternator and 4 new batteries did not hook up "all" the ground wires.

This unit has additional ground wires that power the ECU and other on board functions such as the throttle control.

Now I just have to pay the bill and get back on the road. Glad I am a company driver because this weekend woulda been tough otherwise;
2 alternators
4 new batteries
2 road service calls
1 tow
1 night at motel

Fortunately we do get paid break down pay and the company paid for the hotel stay.