So yesterday our 05 1.9PD Superb said "alternator workshop" and the battery light came on. We took it to the local Skoda dealer who diagnosed a dead alternator. In the six weeks, we've had the alternator pulley replaced and a dead (wasn't holding charge) battery replaced. The car's only 8 years old, now on its third battery and done about 75,000 miles.

Should I be suspicious of any of this?

 

alternators last longer than that don't they???? could I have had a dodgy alternator which is killing batteries prematurely? or could our usage of quite a lot of relatively short journeys have contributed to an early grave?

 

Not necessarily. A refurbished alternator will only last about 75K miles. If your unlucky even a brand new one could be done after that. In 300K miles i replaced 4 alternators. The original one lasted the longest. 

ok thanks, that's really useful to know. I'm asking them to replace with a refurbished part as I'm not sure we'll still have this car in another 75K miles from now!

My alternator went pop somewhere around 50k miles, and the battery was replaced when I bought it at 44k miles.  I agree with Cown - don't think you've got anything sinister or out of the ordinary going on.

 

Gaz