Just a quick query.

The charge light has just illuminated on my fathers Felicia.

Before i spend time and money on the old gal are there any common fail points on this?

Alternators seem to be expensive for this car and with lots of fitments :(

Any comments/help appreciated.

Rob

It could be a dodgy earth, the battery could be on its last legs, or indeed the alternator could be FUBAR. What model Felicia is it? If its a 1.3 LXi/GLi/Pacific/Magic, all it will have is power steering, so you will need an alternator for that spec. Only the 1.6 had the a/c option. Search the interweb for Skospares as well, they are specialist Skoda breakers. I've used em & found em pretty good.

Regulators are quite prone to failing, but you can buy them separate to the alternator and just swap that over so worth looking into, check the charge rate and go from there.

It is a 1996 1.3 LXi with PAS.

The battery is fairly new and the rectifier was replaced recently by the main agent

Checked the output of the alternator and it was high at 14.3 volts.

My father took it back to the main dealer to have the rectifier checked and they told him the alternator was duff and quoted £300 plus fitting Since we only paid £450 for the car I don't think we will be taking them up on their kind offer.

I have now removed the alternator (no thanks to the Haynes Book of Lies which said that the alternator tensioned the serpentine belt on 1.3 models!) and sourced a new replacement for £150. personally I am not convinced that the fault lies with the mechanical bit of the alternator but my father needs the car back on the road ASAP (and he paid for the new alternator!)

All I have to do now is shove it back in!

Many thanks for all the help and advice.

Rob