TomTanderson
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2008
- Messages
- 108
- Car
- 2008 W211 E280CDI
I've been meaning to ask about this for a while but the thread about DRLs has finally spurred me to action!
I have always thought that using electrical items made no difference to fuel consumption as the alternator runs all the time driven by the fan belt (or some other enginey bit ), generating electricity whether it is used or not.
Reading posts here from people who seem to know what they are talking about this doesn't seem to be the case. Can somebody explain, or point me in the right direction of a reasonably technical article, how a modern alternator works and therefore how it uses more fuel to produce more electricity?
Ta
I have always thought that using electrical items made no difference to fuel consumption as the alternator runs all the time driven by the fan belt (or some other enginey bit ), generating electricity whether it is used or not.
Reading posts here from people who seem to know what they are talking about this doesn't seem to be the case. Can somebody explain, or point me in the right direction of a reasonably technical article, how a modern alternator works and therefore how it uses more fuel to produce more electricity?
Ta