Fixed my alternator/lowish voltage problem!

[5mall5nail5]

I had an issue with the voltage from my car hanging around 13 - 13.4... maybe 13.6 sometimes. Tuning big injectors with low voltage means their opening time is longer and makes for less perfect running. Well, I had powder coated the engine mount arms and thats where the engine grounds - this acted like a bit of an isolator on the engine block to chassis ground. This problem existed prior to powder coating those arms, however - even when I was in college cruising on the turn pike to get up to school, my voltage would be 13.5 - 13.6v. This after having a new alternator (Bosch 140A) as well - damn!

Well, I spent about an hour yesterday making a new ground cable. Since the arms are powder coated I had a temporary ground jumper from the knock sensor hole over to the brake booster area to alleviate the issue somewhat - worked marginally well. Yesterday I pulled the front bumper off and went in there and measured up my cable to mount the ground cable directly to the block front (via old bolt holes for the a/c thats not there, M8 bolts) over to the factory ground spot. I can't reach any of this stuff with the bumper on unfortunately.

Once measured, I took my 0 (zero) gauge ground cable and soldered a battery fitting on. I heat the fitting in a vice with a torch and fill it about 3/5 up with solder. Then I take my stripped cable and dunk it in, keeping the torch on for a few seconds and then letting it cool. Do the same thing for the other end and you've got a permanent solder joint w/o crimping AND no burned insulation!

http://jonkensy.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/groundwire2.jpg

This specific cable is SUPER flexible even though its 0-gauge (this manufacturer oversizes their cable so it actually took a 2/0-gauge fitting from McMaster and I STILL had to snip a few coppers out). So I mounted that up, and woo! Voltage hangs out at about 13.94 - 14.09 volts solid. I haven't had the battery charger on the car for about 2 weeks now so this is the actual battery voltage level in the car.

And, as a result, everything runs much nicer especially at idle. I suggest this to anyone!

http://www.vimeo.com/8783976

Note how stable the idle is (this is with 1000cc injectors!). Stock M50 injectors are 170 - 180cc, these are 1000cc... so you can understand how happy I am with the result!

[muckRunner]

nicely done. i may upgrade my big 3 (as they call them) batt to chassis, batt to alt (or fuse block, cant remember), and engine to chassis. this is a big deal among the bass head crowd and with chevy's.

and i love that turbo. that thing is huge, so are those injectors, lol. gotta feed the need i suppose. :)

*edit* 10 points for the bicycle, lol.

[zubbie]

I wonder how many of us are starving our cars electrical systems

[bigsixe34]

always got the fixes jon :)
i'd say "nice work!" but that would sound a bit condescending :rofl
BTW, being an m30 owner i don't have any pitch perception of m50 RPM's, what are you getting it up to at around 1:45 for example? i always notice you stopping around that pitch in your vids...
EDIT: also, what's the functionality of the purple bell on the turbo? (if not to just look boss)

[m60b30530i]

I'm guessing you revved it to about 3500rpm. I don't blame you for not letting her rip, on crappy wet roads your back end would be smoking :evil2,well even on dry roads :buttrock

Great job love the car :devillook

[AZDinanE34]

Looks and sounds amaz..za..za..zing! Good job sir!

[5senses]

Sweet improvement...
question: How did you make the obc read the alternator output?

[5mall5nail5]

always got the fixes jon :)
i'd say "nice work!" but that would sound a bit condescending :rofl
BTW, being an m30 owner i don't have any pitch perception of m50 RPM's, what are you getting it up to at around 1:45 for example? i always notice you stopping around that pitch in your vids...
EDIT: also, what's the functionality of the purple bell on the turbo? (if not to just look boss)

Its a turbo bell mouth - I was test fitting it borrowed from a friend, but I am getting one as well. It helps smooth airflow into the inducer and improves power a good bit especially w/o an air filter on a larger turbo like that.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/Velocity_stack_detail.gif



I'm guessing you revved it to about 3500rpm. I don't blame you for not letting her rip, on crappy wet roads your back end would be smoking :evil2,well even on dry roads :buttrock

Great job love the car :devillook

Actually it was to 5300 RPM. I changed my map and was tuning today - I shifted both my RPM and KPA scales around which means my map is "off" everywhere. So, I was retuning today with only low low boost.

You can see here what happens at only 9 psi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm9KpUvIbr0#t=5m45s

[m60b30530i]

^ I figured that you were doing something like that. :)

Great work and i hope to see this car in person some day

[T444E]

Do this\
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HC91&mospid=47387&btnr=84_0309&hg=84&fg=95

[5mall5nail5]

Thats cool but I don't need moar power I just need consistent voltage. I thought my alternator was shot until making a nice ground for it.

Also trying not to add 50 lbs :rofl

[T444E]

Meh. I'd do it. Just to say I have an OEM Dual battery set up :)

[5mall5nail5]

Yeah itd be cool for stereos and stuff. I am more than satisfied with the single giant battery. Also if I relocate/add a battery I have to go through all kinds of hoops (pun intended) when I take it to the strip.

[TGreene]

Very interesting!

I love the sound of that idle.

[E346]

Do you really feel that we need to use 0 gauge cable for this purpose sir? I feel that the stock wire is considerably smaller, and I have a steady 14.0 or so at idle on my M50. Perhaps just cleaning the stock cables mounting points and checking for integrity will suffice for most people.

Look very clean and the car sound nice, she would definitely like to stretch her legs another 2,000 rpm though =)

[TGreene]

I came back to this thread to grab some useful information. I am following a tip from Shogun's website to replace the alternator-to-charging post cable on a non-starting E32 750il in hopes that it will help it crank over.

I will then take that cable and then reuse it on my E34. I also went to the McMaster-Carr website after reading that that is where you bought your stuff. Very cool website. I am buying 5 feet of the High Flex AWG 2 / .430'' OD cables because that is what Shogun's DIY calls for. I will also buy the battery fittings from them and a bit of heat-shrink wrap in case I screw up how you soldered the ends on.

Battery cables:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#battery-cable-ends/=k59wno

Battery cable connectors:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#battery-cable-ends/=k59wno

Shogun's DIY:

http://twrite.org/shogunnew/topmenu.html

[djb2]

OK, a bit about "best practice" and doing it right. Not that you should actually do it right, but you should know that you are doing it wrong.

The standard way to make flexible wire connections is crimping. Only crimping, with no solder.

Soldering usually results in any wire flex being forced to a single point, increasing the likelihood that the wire will break strand by strand.
Plus the flux, which is corrosive (that's how it works), is wicked up into the wire where it can potentially create corrosion.

The method suggested, dunking the wire into a pool of solder, will result in an especially poor connection. Solder has much higher resistance than copper, and the flux won't have an opportunity to clean the surface of the wire strands. Instead the flux will remain on all surfaces, increasing the potential for corrosion.

That said, I will sometimes solder over my low current crimped connections. Cheap hand crimp tools won't make a consistent crimp, and a bit of solder provides some mechanical strength and mitigates not having a gas-tight crimp.

In this case I suggest using a hammer crimp tool. Most other crimp tools will be too expensive.

[Yehu]

Fascinating this came up.. I've been having a headlight fluctuating issue and changed my alternator thinking the VR was bad.. Alt had around 230,000 on it so figured may as well since its kind of a pita getting out... still have the fluctuating headlights when stopping sometimes.. so started thinking about grouds.

Found these on ebay and when I was looking for an oil leak after adding some dye to the crank case I saw the engine to chassis ground bale was pretty gunked up with oil... looked ok but these look beefier...

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1826039

[93FIM5]

OK, a bit about "best practice" and doing it right. Not that you should actually do it right, but you should know that you are doing it wrong.

The standard way to make flexible wire connections is crimping. Only crimping, with no solder.

Soldering usually results in any wire flex being forced to a single point, increasing the likelihood that the wire will break strand by strand.
Plus the flux, which is corrosive (that's how it works), is wicked up into the wire where it can potentially create corrosion.

The method suggested, dunking the wire into a pool of solder, will result in an especially poor connection. Solder has much higher resistance than copper, and the flux won't have an opportunity to clean the surface of the wire strands. Instead the flux will remain on all surfaces, increasing the potential for corrosion.

That said, I will sometimes solder over my low current crimped connections. Cheap hand crimp tools won't make a consistent crimp, and a bit of solder provides some mechanical strength and mitigates not having a gas-tight crimp.

In this case I suggest using a hammer crimp tool. Most other crimp tools will be too expensive.

Very true on crimping being a more reliable connection. Luckily we have the correct crimpers where I work but if you dont have access do what djb2 says and get a hammer style crimper. Cheap one http://www.mcmaster.com/#battery-terminal-crimpers/=k5uy24 PN 7061K12

[ZenitramNaes]

Fascinating this came up.. I've been having a headlight fluctuating issue and changed my alternator thinking the VR was bad.. Alt had around 230,000 on it so figured may as well since its kind of a pita getting out... still have the fluctuating headlights when stopping sometimes.. so started thinking about grouds.

Found these on ebay and when I was looking for an oil leak after adding some dye to the crank case I saw the engine to chassis ground bale was pretty gunked up with oil... looked ok but these look beefier...

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1826039


Have you looked into the possibility of maybe a failing LKM? My right headlight was going in and out and I re soldered some points in the LKM and fixed the problems I was having.

[madhakish]

Sweet improvement...
question: How did you make the obc read the alternator output?

See test mode 9 below.

Admins - maybe this would be beneficial as a sticky somewhere..

From m5board.com (http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/alpinaboard-com-bmw-alpina-discussion/6767-e34-obc-hidden-functions.html):

Getting into the Test Codes:
============================
Push OBC buttons 1000 and 10 together. You will see the word Test. By pressing a combination of the 10 and 1's you can enter Test Codes from 1 to 21. After entering the number press R/S and you will get a continuous display of the test function. To cancel, just press any of the OBC function keys.

List of Available Tests:
========================
Test Number Description
1 Display Test (all LCDs and LEDs activate)
2 Current Consumption in litres / 100 km
3 Current Consumption in litres / hour
4 Average consumption (used in calculating range)
5 Current Range
6 Not used (this function is active on some, but not sure of the purpose)
7 Fuel Remaining in Tank (litres)
8 Current speed (km/h)
9 System Voltage at Terminal R
10 Country / Language
11 Units / am.pm
12 Average speed (km/h) for calculating ETA
13 ETA
14 Date of software / mask of OBC
15 Production Diagnosis
16 Production Diagnosis
17 Display Vehicle Specific Data
18 Alarm Changeover (continuous vs. intermittent)
19 Lock / Unlock all functions (Sum of month and date to unlock or lock)
20 Correction Factor for OBC Fuel Consumption
21 Reset all defect codes, date and time

!!! You need to unlock the OBC before you can change the settings. !!!

How to lock and unlock the OBC:
===============================
To unlock the OBC, first press the date key, and add the month and day together. So, if the date is displayed as "0704", the result is "11".

Go to test 19 by pressing the 1000 and 10 buttons together, and then typing in the test number (19)·

You will see the word "LOCK" displayed. Type in the result from step 1 above, and press S/R·

If you display test 19 again, it will now display "FREI", indicating the system is now unlocked.

To lock the system again, go to test 19, and press the little button on the top left hand corner of the OBC (F/C).

How to correct your fuel consumption readout:
=============================================
If your car is anything like mine, the fuel consumption readout will be way out. But it can be adjusted! First, you need to measure your fuel consumption as accurately as possible, by filling up the tank, driving until nearly empty, filling again, and figuring out your fuel consumption, in either litres / 100 kms, or MPG. At this point, also note what the fuel consumption as reported by the OBC is. You need both figures to make the adjustment. Once you have that accurate figure, follow the following procedure:

Unlock the OBC as described above.

Go to test 20.

This is the existing fuel consumption constant used in the calculation.

Find the ratio between the old consumption reading, and the actual consumption reading:

For litres per 100kms, this is the actual consumption divided by the reported consumption.

For MPG, it is the opposite. Ie. It is the reported conumption divided by the actual consumption.

Now multiply that ratio with the existing fuel consumption constant, the result is the new constant.

Simply type in the new constant, and press S/R NOTE: Some claim that for some reason, if you don't drive your car for a day or two, the constant will reset back to 1000.

[5mall5nail5]

Very true on crimping being a more reliable connection. Luckily we have the correct crimpers where I work but if you dont have access do what djb2 says and get a hammer style crimper. Cheap one http://www.mcmaster.com/#battery-terminal-crimpers/=k5uy24 PN 7061K12

Yeah I prefer crimped connectors, but I have nothing to do an 0 gauge so I just solder dunked it. I use the glue heatshrink jazz that seals the area from moisture. After blowing up a tendon sheath in my hand, I try not to crimp stuff bigger than say 8 gauge unless I have a hydraulic or vice based setup.