Sudden massive problem. Heeelllp!

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Ah well, after waxing lyrical about my Octy VRS and loving her so much - I guess something had to give!

 

No symptoms at all up until tonight. Started as normal, engine turned over on the starter at it's normal speed - started driving about 5 miles and then....the problems started!

 

First one - I turned on the indicators, which started to flash as normal and then - stopped flashing....I thought 'weird' so I cancelled the indicator and then clicked the stalk up again - this time it was fine.

 

A mile later - bananas! I copped the ABS and TC warning lights - the airbag light - and the red battery light. I couldn't stop as I was on the motorway, and for the next few miles all these lights went intermittently on - off - on again, all independently from each other. I was waiting for a breakdown, but luckily she got me home. Strangely, she was driving fine, and pulling as normal. No misfire or anything like that. No EML light. But the indicators packed up completely.

 

Once home, I switched off, then tried to restart - it wouldn't start, it was like the battery was totally dead. Really slow starter motor, and dim instrument lights. Seems strange, as she had started fine 30 minutes before?

 

I had a quick look under the bonnet. I was sort of expecting the battery fuse box to be melted, that was my first thought. But - it's fine, showing no hint of damage at all. I had a feel of it, all the cables running to and from the fusebox and battery, and everything felt normal - i.e. as warm as you might expect after driving the car, but not hot as to indicate a fault or short. The battery was not hot either.

 

That's as far as I have got so far - I thought I would ask my friends on here first before any further investigation.

 

What do you think? I would have thought that if the alternator had stopped charging and the battery had gone flat because of that, I would have noticed the symptoms of that already - and besides, the battery warning light would have probably come on too? So it does seem to be some kind of electrical fault here - but I have no idea where to start looking really, it's a bit of a mystery obviously.

 

As always, your help and advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks all!

 

 

 

 

[pikpilot]

How old is the battery? Batteries can do funny things near end of life. I read something similar on an Audi forum some time back.

I would get someone to do a high current discharge test on the battery.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

It's an 18-month old Bosch Silver 072. No hint of problems with it up until now, but....

 

It just seems strange that if it IS the battery, I am sure I would have noticed it before. Having owned my car for 5 years now, I am in tune with it more than I've ever been with any woman but seriously, you know when you have a car a long time, and you immediately notice even the TINIEST thing that is different from normal? Like if the battery was failing, I would have definitely noticed a slower cranking speed when I first started her up at the beginning of the journey. Or even before today. Does that make sense?

 

But...stranger things have happened with cars, I know. I won't rule it out anyway, that's for sure.

[Peterj222]

It's an 18-month old Bosch Silver 072. No hint of problems with it up until now, but....

 

It just seems strange that if it IS the battery, I am sure I would have noticed it before. Having owned my car for 5 years now, I am in tune with it more than I've ever been with any woman but seriously, you know when you have a car a long time, and you immediately notice even the TINIEST thing that is different from normal? Like if the battery was failing, I would have definitely noticed a slower cranking speed when I first started her up at the beginning of the journey. Or even before today. Does that make sense?

 

But...stranger things have happened with cars, I know. I won't rule it out anyway, that's for sure.

I had something very similar on a Transit van....turned out the Earth from the battery to the Engine (big thick one to one of the starter motor bolts) had come loose.....worth checking major Earth cables???

[fordfan]

Try attaching a jump lead from the battery negative terminal to a good earth, if all is well your main battery earth cable could be at fault.

[LGM]

I say battery, if not alternator.

[russell wheeler]

Sounds like a bad earth somewhere

[David 8]

Fuel pump relay gone bat **** ???

 

Can happen and causes everything to bat **** with it !!

[KenONeill]

I've had something similar, which proved to be the alternator clutch sticking "open" leading to "no charge".

 

Fast bodgefix is to drop 2 gears to get the revs up, hold for a few seconds and then go back to top.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Good evening chums!

 

In the spirit of concluding a thread - I thought I had better update you all on my problem...

 

Well, it seems at least one of you was correct - the fault was actually a dead alternator. Testing the positive output peg on the alternator this morning revealed zero current coming out of it. So a reasonably easy diagnosis, and a sigh of relief!

 

A strange one, as I have had alternators fail in cars before, but usually the symptoms reveal themselves differently from this time - normally the battery light comes on straight away, and you get dim lights, maybe a misfire....all I got was a bunch of dashboard warning lights, as I said. So I worried that it might be some hideous, diffcult to trace electrical fault! Luckily, it was an easy fix.

 

New VAG / Bosch unit bought from TPS today (at the eye-watering price of £220...) and normal service has resumed. I probably could have bought a cheaper unit from Euros - but with parts that can render my car broken down and undriveable, I tend to go for TPS genuine replacements. I've been let down by crappy pattern parts before.

 

A fairly simple job to swap out the units....however in the process, I managed to crack the dipstick tube and one of the engine breather pipes. Sigh! Still, my car is 15 years old now, and so I know that these get very brittle with age. It's probably a long-overdue job to replace those things, so I will be back off to TPS again tomorrow for some replacements.

 

Thanks to everyone who commented and offered advice, it was all very welcome and I am grateful as usual!