Audi 200 voltage - Comments and update

[Geraint Lloyd]

Mr Dikeman, Mr Myers & M. Richard

Thanks for the responses.

Injectors are less than 20k miles old.
Fuel quality may be a result of Petro-Canada being a bunch of cheapskate
b at stards. IIRC they supply everyone in the bottom left habd corner of quebec
from their refinery in montreal aside from shell who have their own
refinery. It's just about at the end of a 50 /50 mix of petrocan and shell
91. I'll fill it up with shell later. You never know.
The car is generally a daily driver even though i should be on my bike in
this weather.

If i charge the battery every 2 weeks then i have far fewer headaches. In
fact M. Richard lent me a Volvo battery that he had in his URQ for a while,
so I have 2 batteries in reasonable condition. One is always on charge and
there are some 13m sockets next to it to facilitate rapid change outs.
I'm going to buy a new battery soon, but would like to try to establish
whether the battery is the cause or the effect before buying a new one and
promptly killing it.

The car starts very well on a freshly charged battery. (is this a clue?)   

Re: the back interior lights, i removed the bulbs as the only other choice
was to remove his fingers.....

Re the fan: force 12 = Hurricane force = Rolls Royce Pegasus at full
throttle.

The rad was new within the last 6 months. I haven't touched the water pump
though. It's using green coolant as the new (2nd jobber one since i changed
the rad) top hose is leaking. 

I'll check the pulley on the alternator, but it's an 110A jobby. 

Once started, it purrs and the X relief works. There was no change when i
tried one that i stole from your cellar whilst you were away ;)

Update:

I just went and had a fiddle at lunchtime. The car had cooled down so i
disconnected the radiator fan and measured the voltage with the AC off and
on LO. There was no significant voltage drop. 

I had fitted a VAG glow plug fuse and holder to the earth as recommended by
SJM, so i removed that to isolate the fan. There was some corrosion on and
around the fuse, so i cleaned that up. As well as the earth post on the fan
itself. I now have 13.4 volts at the jump post with the AC on and the fan on
the middle speed (Harrier GR9 in cruise). I will try it with the fan at low
level attack speed later, but there seems to be an improvement there that
pushes the voltages to the proper side of the "charging / not charging"
equilibrium. I guess i'll see how it goes.

Geraint