240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

At idle with no load, it should be between 14.4-14.0V Alan so 13.3V is a bit low. I'd suggest you check the charging voltage with your multimeter directly on the battery at tickover to confirm if the new gadget is just reading low as they can also suffer a poor connection in the actual lighter socket.

Once you know if there is a discrepancy the gasget will be more useful as you will have a baseline to work from.

... Yes, as expected Dave: I get 14.35v at tick-over and a reading at the device of 13.3v, - about a volt of potential drop to the accessory socket would be about right (and there would have been a few low current devices like the interior light providing quite an easy path to the -ve return). I'm happy that the new meter is giving me some useful information about the health of the battery and charging system as any deviation from what it shows now would be a good warning.