Hi,

After 4 years of solid reliable motoring, the alternator on my 1998 1.3 MPI felicia is starting to show signs of tiredness, as it will charge the battery under no load - day light conditions without heater, wipers etc. but when under load - lights, stereo, heater, the alternator is not charging the battery sufficiently. Is it just worth replacing the whole alternator unit or trying to recondition it?

Also, on my home home from Uni last night, the steering starting vibrating extremely loudly and pulling heavily to one side, after checking for punctures etc. I nursed it further a short distance until there was no drive and a horrible crunching sound started from the gearbox. This turned out to be a Driver's side drive shaft failure with the CV joint. Is this going to be a very expensive cure - I've seen new drive shafts on ebay for around £90 but have no idea about labour costs.

I'm also thinking as the temperature sensor in the thermostat and ECU is on the way out - the engine floods on starting up from cold and stalls for the first 4/5 starts, whether to just say goodbye to the felicia and get a new(er) car as it seems that its of the age where parts are starting to go pack up!!

Any help/advice is much appreciated....

Andy

Alternator - you can replace just the regulator/brushes, but you'll probably be able to get hold of an entire one cheaply enough

Driveshaft - it's not a big job, easily under an hour for a garage to do, and it's only the driveshaft nut and the bottom balljoint that need to be disconnected to remove it (other than getting the shaft out of the gearbox), and then replace and top the oil up again; if you jack the car up to a decent angle you won't lose a massive amount of gearbox oil when the shaft is out.

Temperature sensor failure is common on these, and easy to replace (a single clip)

Not sure I'd say it's a replacement job for the car (although obviously I've not seen it!) - Fels are reliable and tough little cars, and you know most of the good and bad of your one. If it's not rusty, just keep it going, it'll go on forever. Shaft failure is probably down to lack of maintenance, rather than a fault, as it were.