Broken wire lead to over charging. 08 1.4 D4D

[rob42]

As can be seen by attached, when on my commute the dash began to loose power, Headlight lights would dim slightly then reset. my imitate thought was the alternator  was failing, apon stopping and checking the voltage it was 13.2v and started no problem so I continued until the same happed again, on the second inspection while at idle the Battery was at 18v. so I thought the voltage reg  was the issue so while prepping to remove the alternator, copped that the multi pin connecter had a broken wire (white) caused by the loom doing a 90* bend on that spot. the alternator was replace by a Toyota garage  a number of years ago (family friend owned the car before me) so it was possible that the loom wasn't reinstalled correctly so with a wire soldered in and heat shrinked and the use of cable ties to release the stress on the bend. it should do an other 300k km 

I assume that the dash electronics would be sensitive to voltage change, i replaced the Battery for good measure. fix was done 3 weeks ago and no problems since over 2k miles done since.  this hopefully will be insightful to anyone else with the same issue.                                                                                                                                    

[Mooly]

Well done for finding the problem. 18v is unlikely to have caused any problems with the electronics but it was wise to replace the Battery as that would certainly suffer if run for very long with 18v across the terminals. You have done everything right such as anticipating stress on a soldered joint and tying to prevent problems.

Excellent.

[rob42]

3 minutes ago, Mooly said:

Well done for finding the problem. 18v is unlikely to have caused any problems with the electronics but it was wise to replace the battery as that would certainly suffer if run for very long with 18v across the terminals. You have done everything right such as anticipating stress on a soldered joint and tying to prevent problems.

Excellent.

Thanks, I studied and work in the mechanical engineering field so iv a slight advantage 😂