Hey guys, what voltage does your stock Z put out on the volt gauge? I keep popping ballasts in my 03 touring (OEM HID) and I have no idea why. I noticed my voltage IS kind of high, like 15 always, but it goes up to 15.5v, maybe even more. I never really paid attention to the voltage gauge though so this may be how it operated the whole time. I never really had a reason to check the gauge, I'm stock. I was thinking maybe the voltage regulator in the alternator might be bad.

 

Normally, alternators put out about 14+ volts. Per the FSM, the regulated voltage should read between 14.1 and 14.7 volts.

 

My Z and crv are, as Dave said, between 14.1 and 14.7; typically 14.4

 

15.5 is too high for consistent, steady state output. normal range is like stated above, with acceptable and very rare fraction-of-a-second spikes into the 15s, but never constant and all the time. get your alternator checked out

 

mine puts out 14 on the dot when driving

 

Yeah I though that's what it was supposed to be. I'm by no means a rookie when it comes to working on cars, I just didn't know if Z's ran higher. Like I said, never had a reason to look at the volt meter until now. There's a shop by my house that rebuilds alternators so I'll have him take a look at it.

Thanks guys!

 

If you have a good voltmeter of your own, check it at the battery. Check at idle and at 2k rpm. OEM voltmeters seem to guesstimate quite often.

 

I've got a Fluke multimeter I'll check it with thanks.

 

I heard a joke once about a high voltage reading being just a fluke, but I can't remember how it went.