hi everyone,

i've been having some battery charging issues, which i think are due to the 2 alternator belts being loose. i thought it would be worth sharing the story in case others have this problem, or if anyone has any thoughts or similar experiences.

the battery is 3-4 months old. i noticed it wasn't charging that well, i had to get a couple jump starts, i thought it was because i left my light on accidentally, and it was single digit temperatures, and i didn't take it on long drives. but then even after an hr highway drive to charge it, the next morning i needed a jump.

so i charged it with a car battery charger on wednesdsay.
on thursday i used a digital voltmeter to test, it was reading 13.0v with the engine off, and 13.6v with the engine on or rev'd. as far as i understand i should be getting closer to 14.5v.

i thought it was the alternator, but just by chance my friend poked at the fan/alternator belts and they're super loose. we marked a line on them with a permanent marker to see if they were turning in sync when the engine was running, and for sure they weren't. so i'm pretty sure if they were tight, the alternator would still be working, or i'm hoping so.

now, i wasn't sure about this: i imagined loosening the adjustment bolt would make the space bigger, and tighten the belts, but it didn't work, and i'll try to tighten them next.

otherwise i'll have to bring it to the shop, when searching there seemed to be a bunch of kind of complicated issues with the bolts or brackets potentially breaking, need welding, etc.

__________________
w123
1985 300D turbo sept 2015 - present
1985 300TD turbo oct 2023 - present
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