The battery light came on on our 1.9TDi Elegance on wednesday, so my wife took the car to our local garage who diagnosed a faulty alternator. On thursday they rang to say that they had been sent the wrong alternator so the car wouldn't be ready til friday.

When she went to collect the car on friday the garage told her that there was nothing wrong with the original alternator and the they couldn't find or repair the fault and suggested that we take the car to an auto electrician as when the alternator was connected the charge cable to the battery was getting v. hot. They suggested that perhaps the glow plugs were staying on once the engine had started.I had a quick look under the bonnet on friday evening and found that the 100a fuse link in the fuse box had blown. I replaced this and sure enough the charge cable heated up v quickly. I also noticed that the engine cooling fans were running continously (hence previous post).

I have tried disconecting the fans and the glow plugs, but the cable still gets v hot.

Has anyone any ideas as to whats causing this? I will try and get the car looked at next week and will post follow up.

Any update on this problem? I am curious what was the problemo/cure:rolleyes:

Isaac

I Took the car into Horner Bros in Mildenhall and they diagnosed the fault in a matter of minutes. Apperently crimped connection on the end of the charging cable was corroded causing the resistance of the cable to be very high resulting in it heating up. They trimmed an inch or so of the cable crimped on a new lug and problem cured! The only downside was having to have a new auxiluary fusebox fitted because the old one had melted!

The guy at Horners said that he had seen this fault a couple of times on Octavias so it may be something for other owners to watch out for.

If anyone in Suffolk/cambridgeshire area has any electrical problems I can thoroughly recommend Horner Bros in Mildenhall. They fitted our car in straight away even though they were busy and they were helpul, friendly and reasonably priced in comparison to our local main dealer.

Hope this info is of use to other owners.

The only downside was having to have a new auxiluary fusebox fitted because the old one had melted!

The guy at Horners said that he had seen this fault a couple of times on Octavias so it may be something for other owners to watch out for.

Thank you for let us know the fix solution. Was nice to know that it was not a expensive fix:rolleyes:

My Skoda dealer also toll me the same about the fuse box problem on Skoda

Mind if i ask how much this repair cost?

Ford Galaxys with the VW PD engine have a similar problem , in that corrosion on the power lead terminal burns out the fuse box

The repairs cost £43+ vat for the new fusebox and an hours labour.

Not too bad then all said and done.

wow.... a fuse box and an hours labour for that little. Sounds like a good deal!