TroelsDK

Feedback: Much to my surprise I got the alternator out with too much trouble. (Very pleased with my self, as it was the first time I did anything like that on a car) The drive-belt was a bit tricky as I did not have the prober torx-bit to hold the small pulley thats mounted to spring. I did not have the correct size brushes, but I did have some spare brushes for a makita belt-sander. With a bit of saw-file-work they fitted fine and was easy to solder. 100Km later and the car is running fine(*). - no more battery-symbol-warnings in the dash *"Fine" as in: that specific problem is gone 😉 Thanks for the support. Kind regards Troels

Found this on YT: Looks veeeery close to my model. Apparently it IS possible to change the brushes, - although probably not recommended.. I think, I will give it ago, and verify that this IS indeed the rootcause. - before investing in more parts Kind regards Troels

Hi. Spend an hour looking/poking/screwing at the alternator and now its out of the car, - so no way back now 🙂 It looked fine and turns very smoothly so I proceeded to take the the thing apart. A screw holding the plastic cover broke, but I assume its less important. Next I removed a black part and that revealed the brushes (pure luck in my disassembly process)... The top slip-ring was very dark, but a light scrub made it look as shown in the picture. The top brush appears to be more worn than the lower. (maybe hard to see in the pictures Im assuming that the brushes are OK for a little more? Both brushes mowe freely, but I would guess that the top brush has a hard time making prober contact. It dosnt look like its possible to move the brushes, but I might try anyways, - nothing to loose. Please have a look at the pictures and tell me what you think. I Hope the brush-part-thingy is available as a sparepart? Kind regards Troels

One additional information: Everytime I have had this problem the battery-symbol in the dashboard lights up (red). I will stop the car, leave the engine running and tap the alternator. Cant remember is the battery-symbol goes out immediately after tapping or by next motor-start, - but it does go out. BUT, i have no way of telling whether the symbol comes on as soon as the fault is present or only when the battery-voltage is low, - or something else? Kind regards Troels

Hi. Thank you for the input. I have no idea what a "load sense wire" is. (will try some googling) Des it make sense that the problem can be solved everytime by tapping the alternator? - does that wire go directly to the alternator (preliminary googling gives me hits around starter-motor?) Kind regards Troels

Hi. New member here. Disclaimer: I have very limited experience with fixing cars, but I've worked in electrical engineering for the last 20 years, and is quite skilled in fixing everything else - so hopefully thats enough for this. I have an old Fabia with approx 260.000 Km on it.: SKODA FABIA (6Y2) 1.2 (40 KW / 54 HK) Really beginning to show its age, but runs fine and I would really like to keep it going for 1-2 years more. The Battery light is starting to light up more and more. I was told that a "quickfix" was to wack the alternator gently with a hammer and listen for the motor to slow down a little. This method has been very effective for the last year, but now its required at least once a day and I need to wack hard... Based on this, I'm pretty sure that the problem is with the alternator and I've been tempted to try, to fix it my self. The car is so old that, even If I completely wreck it, I can live with it. The offer from a mechanic is 4000-5000Dkr (~550Eur) and I'm not sure the car is worth that much.... So, what are my options here? lacking experience, I think this is the plan: Test if the alternator can be removed from the car with my limited tools and skills ( Have found a YT-video, and it looks simple) Take out the alternator and look for loose connections or mechanical parts that could be stuck (anything the aligns with the "hammer-repair-method") If no apparent fix is obvious, order a new alternator online and try to mount that (looks like I could get an Bosch-part for below 200Eur) Does that sound totally wrong? Regarding new parts: I've been looking at AutoDoc and they list many different options when I enter the licence plate. Some of the listed parts are slightly different. 50mm vs 56mm pulley for example. Would anyone know what the critical parameters are? Thanks in advance, and sorry for my complete lack of correct terms 🙂 Kind Regards Troels