Volt meter

[Glenn Scherrer]

I have a 1998 patriot 330 cat when the engine runs for a while the dash volt meter move from 12v  to 14v in a pulsating movement  the dash computer reads a steady 13v    I placed a meter in the cigarette lighter plug and the meter did not pulsate like the dash volt meter.  The tach also pulsates but not as much as the volt meter. Can any one help?

[Dennis Crawford]

Glen,

Mine does the same thing on occasion.  Like you, my Adladin is fine as well as the charging circuits via a hand heldmeter.  I am not going to worry about it.

Dennis

[Edward Buker]

If you notice when you turn the dash fan on the voltage in the voltmeter will drop. The headlights will also make that voltmeter drop due to the added load causing voltage drop in the harness. This may be caused by some kind of load that turns on and off. The clutch to the dash air compressor is a load that will pulse if the R134a charge is low for instance. You can see if the pulse has a repeated period to it, 4 seconds on, 4 seconds off for instance and see if some accessory is timed to that period just to know what causes this pulsation.

If the dash computer stays at 13V this is not an issue, just an annoyance. If you check and tighten the grounds and the + leads around the dash meter area you may be able to reduce this affect if something is loose but that is not overly likely. This is a wire gauge and connection point issue that is built in when the dash wiring harness was designed. The computer sense point is not near the dash and never sees this varying load voltage drop issue. Sometimes you have to separate annoyances from real problems and ignore the annoyances for piece of mind.

Later Ed

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Glenn,
I noticed a similar problem just after buying a 2001 Contessa in 2005. I found almost all of of the connections on the dash meters (brass nuts/posts) to be loose.
Tightening reduced the occurrence significantly.
Steve