How long can I drive without generator?

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kilou

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Hi,

I find that my steering is too assisted and the car wanders and vibrates at high speed. I've already renewed all parts that can be renewed (balljoints, tie rods, suspension, lower arms etc) and tires, alignment/wheel balance is checked and OK. Only the whole steering rack may now be renewed but before doing that I want to make sure that this is not caused by I problem with the PS (bad pressure relief valve etc).

Therefore I'd like to remove the auxiliary drive belt that feeds the PS pump so that I can drive the car without PS and without damaging the pump. However this drive belt also feeds the generator so driving without it means discharging the battery
smirk.gif


The question is how long approx. can I drive the car exclusively on the battery? I guess it depends on the battery, mine is just a standard one (don't know much more about it). I guess that the ignition needs quite lot of electricity so do you think I can drive for about 30min without generator??

Thanks
 
I ran my daytona 4 cylinder for 80 miles over 3 days when my alt. failed on me. Didnt run very well, and it was in cool weather and no night operation. I have a Diehard Truck/SUV battery. It was rated I believe at 900CCA, but when the shop tested it the first day the alt failed, it was putting out 1178 amps in the warm weather.

On my way to the shop to swap the alt the voltage was reading 8.5-10volts!
 
If you have one of those "jumpak" batteries to jump start a car, use it in addition to the car's battery when starting and less will be taken out of the car's battery. Then bring it along for your ride along with belt and wrenches to reinstall belt. if you die, you can get it going in short order.
 
If the battery is at 90% or greater state of charge, then you should get at least an hour of drive time no problem.

I can remember, was a while ago, had to get a friends car a few miles and the alternator was shot and the battery was shot. We'd jump the car to charge it for 10 minutes, then run it for 5 minutes before it died. that was with a dead battery.

you can probably figure your ignition- just the coil(s) to fire the spark plugs, will draw usually around 5-8 amps. Use 10 amps for a nice round number, then also include any other systems like computer, transmission sensors, instrumentation, fuel pump, etc. 10 amps might be a little short, so say 20 amps.
most batteries have a reserve capacity of 90 minutes, I think, and that's a constant 25 amp draw, so the battery is good for 90 minutes at a constant 25 amp draw if the battery was at 100% state of charge. You can also use the amp-hour rating if reserve capacity isn't listed for your battery. You could probably look up online some common reserve capacity or amp-hour ratings for car batteries, there all going to be close to each other unless you're comparing the smallest sized battery to a 1000 cca battery.
Redo the numbers and even being really conservative, I would think you should get an hour of drive time no problem.
 
Thanks for your replies! I forgot to mention that I have a voltmeter installed in the car so I can constantly see the battery voltage. Is there a minimum V at which the car can operate? Maybe I can plan the test trip with this in mind so that if the V drops passed a certain value I know I should head back home.

For sure I'll take a spare battery with me. As for wrenches and belt I won't be able to put it back on the car on the side of the road. It's pretty cramped to get to the tensioner and I have to access it from the underside -> jacking the front and removing the engine undercover.

If I can get 30-45min it's more than enough to test it. I hope I can find the cause because these steering problems are driving me nuts and I really don't know what else to change except the whole rack
frown.gif
 
I know that my car doesn't start if the battery voltage drops below 11.8-11.7V This doesn't give a great margin probably...but the starting voltage is higher than the what the car needs once the engine is running, right?
 
just make sure the waterpump is not run by that belt.
btw my chevy work truck lost an alt and ran fine till the voltmeter bottomed out at 8v.started missing and stumbling.
got the rest of the way home with an 8d gel battery and long jumpercables snaked out the window and under the back of the hood.used the 8d to run stuff at a hamfest that day.
 
No my waterpump is run by the timing belt. Thr aux belt only runs the PS pump, AC compressor and alternator.
 
I drove a car 40 miles on two car batteries--I connected the additional car battery through the cigarette lighter socket.

I had a multimeter hooked up and the voltage never dropped below 12.4 volts, as I recall.
 
Quote:

That is a very non-smart way to check for steering problems, and is also illegal.
Take it to a pro.

Click to expand...


Well not that much more illegal than if the belt broke and you need to drive to the garage
smile.gif
I already took the car to pros and all I was told is that they didn't feel anything wrong with it....

I removed the aux belt and drove the car for a few km without PS and it seems the PS is not the source of the steering problem. I still get a light feel around center without PS as well...but this is not linked to any obvious play.
 
I drove from San Jose, CA to Antioch, CA, on the battery when my alternator failed. It was still running when I shut it down, and the battery still had enough left to restart the engine.
 
There is a chart somewhere on how to judge battery state-of-charge at room temperature; it's around 90% discharged when it drops below 12.0 volts. Expect a precipitous decline when it gets below that point... Call off the test drive and head for homebase.
 
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