Toyota Hiace alternator fault?

82dog

Hi all, new to this so please bear with me.

I have a problem with my 99 hiace van, most of the lights stay on on the dash
untill the van is at fairly high reves,I was told it could be the alternator brushes
so I have changed them but it mad no difference.
Any help would be much appreciated.
thanks in advanced.

jca

82dog wrote: »

Hi all, new to this so please bear with me.

I have a problem with my 99 hiace van, most of the lights stay on on the dash
untill the van is at fairly high reves,I was told it could be the alternator brushes
so I have changed them but it mad no difference.
Any help would be much appreciated.
thanks in advanced.

You'll need to take the alternator off the engine to get it tested. It really could be any component within the alternator that's gone faulty. I presume you checked all the connections. Considering the age of the van, an alternator from a breakers would probably work out cheaper.

82dog

Thanks JCA for the reply.
I have a couple more questions,
Do new brushes bed in? It seems to have gotten abit better, and dose the fact it works better when the van is warm give you any clues?

jca

82dog wrote: »

Thanks JCA for the reply.
I have a couple more questions,
Do new brushes bed in? It seems to have gotten abit better, and dose the fact it works better when the van is warm give you any clues?

Brushes will bed in to a certain degree but that would imply that the slip rings are in poor condition. I think the improvement when it's warm is because there's less demand being put on the alternator. The battery has been recharged (eventually) the after heat on the heater plugs is finished etc. I really think an alternator from a breakers is your best option.

82dog

Ok thanks that makes sense,one of the slip rings did look like it had a bit of a groove in it.

dooroy

Have you any way of checking if alternator is charging - for example battery voltage should be around 12.5 before starting and getting up close to 14 or slightly over when running.
This would only take a few mins to check and avoid the guesswork.
And make sure all connections are clean and tight . Any doubt remove and clean - a tight connection can still be a bad connection due to internal corrosion.
Slip rings are usually changed with the brushes - bedding in ( so that both brushes are making full contact with slip rings ) can take a while and doesn't always work .

jca

dooroy wrote: »

Have you any way of checking if alternator is charging - for example battery voltage should be around 12.5 before starting and getting up close to 14 or slightly over when running.
This would only take a few mins to check and avoid the guesswork.
And make sure all connections are clean and tight . Any doubt remove and clean - a tight connection can still be a bad connection due to internal corrosion.
Slip rings are usually changed with the brushes - bedding in ( so that both brushes are making full contact with slip rings ) can take a while and doesn't always work .

I don't think anyone is "guessing" here. It's obvious from the symptoms that the alternator is struggling to produce enough juice. At least with a Hiace you can actually see the alternator which is a help.

dooroy

IMHO there was an element of guessing .
Someone suggested (guessed) alternator was the problem. Brushes changed -problem remains .
Maybe it is still the problem - but what if a SH one is fitted and problem remains ?
A simple check of alternator output will decide whether alternator is faulty or not - and that can be done without removing it.
Older vehicles can suffer from a variety of problems with the electrics - often caused by simple things like poor/broken earths , bad connections at multiplugs or broken wires .
And generally when the alternator is not charging only one light remains on - 82dog says most of the lights stay on.
So the obvious may not be so obvious .

jca

I did say to the op to check all his connections. Any Toyota s we use in work when the alternator fails all the lights come on on the dash. Don't ask me why but they always do. As you say a simple multimeter test will reveal a lot.

dooroy

As they say you learn something new every day - hadn't heard of Toyotas doing that . Info for me to keep in mind for the future .
The reason I was suggesting a few basic checks is that I've often seen people replacing expensive parts unnecessarily because they jumped to conclusions.