2000 buick park avenue

[Miked1991]

Hi everyone I have a 2000 buick park avenue with 134k miles and what's the normal range on your Driver information center for battery voltage and how low does yours drop down too?

 

[fm9572]

I started having problems when my voltage dropped below 13.5v. I try to keep it around 14v if at all possible.

 

[84ZZ4]

I have a 98 that I drive daily. I don't think I've ever seen mine read 14.anything. The highest I think I've ever seen was 13.7V. Normally mine seems to hover between 13.2 and 12.6.

Considering that 12.6V is almost as discharge condition, I don't think the reading on mine is particularly accurate, and yours may not be either. I don't know if that's common on the later model Park Avenues or not.

 

[Miked1991]

Yes sometimes mine goes down to 12.6 then up to 14.1 and down again I just wanted to see what you guys were around the car runs good and the lights don't dim I just don't remember seeing it go that low I wanted to make sure the alternator not going

 

[84ZZ4]

When my alternator was actually having trouble keeping the car charged, it routinely dipped into the 11's. I'd say when I started seeing it regularly below 12.2 it was an issue.

 

[Kingpinkie]

When my alternator was actually having trouble keeping the car charged, it routinely dipped into the 11's. I'd say when I started seeing it regularly below 12.2 it was an issue.

It could be a current draw from something in the car. Maybe aftermarket items installed. I would break out the trusty ohm meter and check the battery to see what voltage you are getting. I've heard the electronics on Buick's can be kind of wacky. Not 100% sure but just a thought, and my personal opinion. May be alternator going out slowly but doubt it just another thought.

 

[84ZZ4]

You can measure the voltage directly across the battery terminals very easily with a multimeter, and you might want to do so if you're feeling suspect about the numbers. But I have at least one car that reads low on the DIC but has good voltage at the battery, and has no noticeable electrical issues, so it does happen.

 

[fm9572]

I'v had a lot of issues with my charging system.
I've had dead batteries. My power accessories stopped working when I drove the vehicle more than 10 miles. I had the voltage suddenly drop to around 8 volts. I've had the vehicle suddenly die while going down the road.

I have the 140 amp alternator, because my vehicle has the dual range climate control, and all of the bells and whistles. It's not an Ultra, but it has all of the factory accessories, including leather.

I've wound up;
Replacing the battery
Replacing the alternator
Replacing the drive belt
Replacing the water pump
Replacing the harmonic balancer
Replacing the battery cables (the new factory replacement AC Delco cables are heavier gauge than the OEM units)
Added a redundant #4 guage cable from the alternator to the fuse center, where the factory cable hooks up
Added a redundant #10 gauge ground wire from the engine to the body, where the battery ground cable hooks to the body

All of this seems to finally have my charging system working properly. I'll post pics of the modifications tomorrow, when I have daylight for pics.

 

[fm9572]

I took the pics of my added 'redundant' wires today. The first picture, you can see the second lead to the alternator. The wire to the right of the picture in Pic 1 is the factory wire. It's either a #6 gauge or #4 gauge lead. It leads to the battery, and hooks into one of the positive battery cables. There is a second either #6 or #4 gauge cable that leads from the battery to the fuse block under the hood, in front of the windshield. I really don't like this setup. I made the redundant lead feed directly to the fuse block. It is the same size as the factory lead, or larger. This effectively doubles the amp carrying capacity to both the battery, and the power center of the vehicle. The alternator is rated at 140 amps, but the lead from the alternator to the battery isn't designed to carry that load for more than a few minutes. It's more realistically designed to handle about 80 amps full time. The second lead allows for a full 160 amp capability full time. Pic 2 is how it looks going into the power center with the cover on. Pic 3 is how it's connected to the power center.

Pic 4 is of the redundant ground as it's hooked to the engine. You can see the yellow cap on the terminal on the left. It's hooked to the bolt above the water neck. If you look to the right, you can see the negative battery cable, and the lead attached to it leading from the block to the body. I replaced the OEM cables with factory replacements because they were 20 years old, and pretty corroded. Apparently GM has found the OEM units not sturdy enough, so the factory replacement cable is one gauge heavier than stock. The original was a #4 gauge, and the replacement was a #2 gauge. The factory lead from the block to the frame is a #8 gauge, and can handle about 40 amps. Automotive companies started adding these leads for a better ground when they found that just running a ground to the block wasn't enough. I added a #10 gauge lead to the same terminal as the factory lead, for another 30 amps of current flow. Pic 5 is of the terminal that the grounds are hooked to on the body. As you can see, several items are grounded to this terminal. The biggest ground on that terminal is the factory ground lead that hooks to the battery cable. the two with yellow caps are redundant grounds I have hooked to that terminal. The better ground you have, the less strain on the alternator.

It seems that something in the electrical system wants to put a drain on the system whenever the vehicle is running after the vehicle gets over 100k-150k miles on it. This setup overcomes that drain no matter what.

 

[pila80]

I never trust factory gauges to be very accurate. If a car runs good with no obvious problems, the area that the voltmeter reads most of the time is likely normal, regardless of the actual numbers on it.
Driving the car in daytime with most accessories turned off will show a higher battery voltage than with the AC, radio, blower fan on etc, & other accessories running.
The battery is just going along for the ride normally, after the engine is started, and the alternator is the item carrying the load.

 

[fm9572]

As long as I'm moving, my voltage is around 14v. It doesn't matter if I have anything else running or not. Mine just really doesn't like stop and go traffic, and this started being a problem in the last 10k miles or so. That's when I started having the problem with the accessories not working after I've driven a few miles. The windows stopped working, along with the seats, and the door locks. The fan still works, along with the radio and the lights. It had problems with just dying in the middle of the road. If you would let it 'rest' for about an hour, it would start back up, and run for a while.

Suffice it to say, it was having multiple symptoms, to a problem that had either one or more solutions.

The second alternator lead can't hurt anything, and is only about $15. The redundant ground is only about $10, unless you already have some 10 gauge wire and a couple of fittings lying around. Both of them will allow the alternator to flow more current at all speeds.

 

[fm9572]

Another note I'd like to make. When I swapped Alternators, I didn't pay attention to the pulley on the alternator when I got it. The one they gave me had a larger diameter pulley than what I had from the factory. This results in the alternator not being able to sustain the field during low rpm engine operation. This also can mean it won't have the proper voltage if you crank the engine after a lot of slow around town driving.

I went to an alternator shop, and had them swap the pulleys for me, to the smallest pulley that would fit on my alternator. It made a major difference in how fast it would charge, and what voltage it would maintain.

 

[KShef]

I replaced the alt to fuse, fuse to battery and ground wires with 4 gauge wiring and converted from a side to top post battery. I 've always seen voltage fluctuations on the DIC but have no charging/power issues.

 

[fm9572]

The OEM replacement AC Delco cables I got from a GM dealer were heavier gauge than what came on the vehicle. The ground that came on the vehicle was #4 gauge, and the replacement was #2. That was the same case with the cable going to the starter. The leads going to the alternator and to the fuse center were both #6, so I added another #4 between the alternator and the fuse center. It basically made a full circle between fuse center, battery, and alternator. Charging isn't my problem anymore.

 

[Maylar]

The DIC display on my 99 reads about .6V lower than a voltmeter plugged into the cig lighter socket.

 

[scasti1]

I have a 98 that I drive daily. I don't think I've ever seen mine read 14.anything. The highest I think I've ever seen was 13.7V. Normally mine seems to hover between 13.2 and 12.6.

Considering that 12.6V is almost as discharge condition, I don't think the reading on mine is particularly accurate, and yours may not be either. I don't know if that's common on the later model Park Avenues or not.

Saw your 2013 post. My 2000 voltage is reading 12.6-13.4. Posting to see if you had any issues over the years associated with that? I had some battery and alternator issues after recently purchasing mine. Was wondering if you had experiences since that 2013 post?
Was

 

[BuickGirlFromMars]

Saw your 2013 post. My 2000 voltage is reading 12.6-13.4. Posting to see if you had any issues over the years associated with that? I had some battery and alternator issues after recently purchasing mine. Was wondering if you had experiences since that 2013 post?
Was

..no...

when is it saying 12.6

 

[ulycyc]

It depends.. Generally 12.6-12.8 volts should be the resting state of the battery engine off. One you start the car with no load on it can vary from 13-4 to 14.4. This can change a lot due to ambient temps of all the electrical components, also condition of the connections. So before you start its 12.6 and at idle 13. 4 to 14.4 then 13. 4-13.8 on the highway your fine. My car only sees over 14 volts during morning startup before accessories are turned on. Later in the day when car is hot, startup may be 13.4-13.6 which is normal.

PS. BuickGirl I didn't see your post before mine. Must be posting at the same time

 

[Lui]

I wouldn´t trust the the DIC display anyway. Better you use a Multimeter connected to the battery.

 

[BuickGirlFromMars]

I wouldn´t trust the the DIC display anyway. Better you use a Multimeter connected to the battery.

Load management is enabled on these cars by default and the ad series alternators PLUS the pcm interventions etc and the BCM all have the car under use the generator at startup, slowly ramp up, and then it has a behavior that does its own thing. if you disable load management with a tech 2 it would be more cut/dry

The DIC display is usually a bit low