Dear All,

Just let the bloke take my car away for an MOT...

He told me he broke down on the way there, and the alternator had gone. Car has only done 60k miles....

I had a plethora of check engine lights come up over the winter. No.2 Fan had stopped spinning, then, there were a series of faults related to a misfire in cylinder 4, ignition control module e.t.c.

Does all this chime with the alternator going? Hoping that the battery voltage was a bit low and so this is what caused the lights, but wondering if anyone can give an expert opinion!

Thanks

Gavin

My alternator is still going strong after 116,000 miles

First thing to do is test the voltage onto the battery when the engine is running, you want to see upwards of 14 volts from the alternator under ideal conditions. Anything less and I would question the output from the alternator.

Also try a load test as well, turn on all electrical gadgets and see what the alternator is doing, there will be a small voltage drop but it shouldn't be below 13.5 volts.

Don't give the garage the nod to do anything until you can verify the cause of the problem.

Its also worth checking the battery itself.

The garage may already have done all this, but an alternator failure at 60k miles isn't unknown.

Are you sure it's the alternator?

There is a clutch inside the alternator pulley which can go. That costs about £75 to be fixed which is a lot less than the whole alternator.

I had to have this changed at 70k miles after it killed a battery by failing to charge it properly. It also caused electrical issues with lights dimming etc.

Edited 16 February, 201016 yr by cheezemonkhai