GaryM Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 Well my first major breakdown in 18months! Lets hope it is not the start of something. Happily chugguing down the motorway and then reach heavy traffic. The engine starts to feel a little bit sluggish, not unlike the symptoms of a doggy MAF. About 10 mins later the ABS light comes on. Then the radio acts up and I have almost no power. Pull on to the hard sholder, switch the engine off to try and reset the ECU but the engine will not crank. A Flat battery. I find this strange as it is only 2 months old. Let the car rest for about 10mins and the battery has recovered enough to enable me to start the car. Engine seems fine and off we go again. Another 30 mins later the same happens again. This time no chance of starting and it is on the back of a transporter going back home. Read up on the posts here (thanks :D) and it looks like a common fault. First thing I look at is the fuse box and the aera around the alternator fuse is all burnt out. http://www.mpathltd.co.uk/MiscImages/BurntFuseBox.jpg Doing some testing I was a little worried as there apperaed to be nothing comming out of the alternator. Frauds want Quote
bigdaddy Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 Bloody brilliant job you done there :D Quote
mumof4 Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 Oh what a familiar sight!!!! :D *sigh*..........looks just like my baby....*sigh* you lucky...my alternator gone now...my main fuse feed box has looked like that twice in less than 2 months.just forked out for another alternator(read all me posts...youll find this is a subject close to my heart) :D Quote
GaryM Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Posted February 11, 2006 Cheers BigDaddy :D MumOf4: yep read your trials and tribulations. So do you have any explanation of what the fault was or are you just in the lap of the Gods? I'm just worried that this is the start of something. I hope I have nipped it in the bud. Quote
mumof4 Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 lap of the gods i think...the alternator cable a higher resistance (or summit)..once it has overheated once.the first time it happened it melted a loom which needed replaceing..this time its off road...not sure if the alternator went first or the fuse this time...either way..the diode pack is burnt out...i got a new alt for Quote
GaryM Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Posted February 11, 2006 Hopefully it has been caught just in time. Got the guy to solder the new crimps as well just to make sure the joint is electically secure. Forgot to mention a couple of other symptoms. The car smoked like a tropper when I ran it b4 repair. Investigation showed this came from the Aux heater at the rear. I can only assume that this was because the glowplug could not get enough juice to burn the desiel off propperly. Fine after repair. Took a look with VAGCOM and oh what a load of faults in alsorts of modules. Many flagging low voltage. Nothing specifically mentioning an alternator related problem though. Reset all the modules now. :D Quote
mumof4 Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 your lucky then..... :D .........i miss my car!!!!! :D Quote
GaryM Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Posted February 11, 2006 Hope so, got an important run on Monday. She how she runs tomorrow Quote
GaryM Posted February 12, 2006 Author Report Posted February 12, 2006 Well done a days motoring with reasonable electric demands and the new fuse and box have kept thier cool :) Quote
mumof4 Posted February 12, 2006 Report Posted February 12, 2006 glad to hear it....fingers crossed it doesnt happen again! :) Quote
Nigel63 Posted May 25, 2007 Report Posted May 25, 2007 Did fitting the new fuse box fix the problem or have you had a other problems with it since. Nigel63 Quote
Andrew T Posted May 25, 2007 Report Posted May 25, 2007 I had exactly the same thing a couple of years ago, I replaced the fuse box and had a new alternator cable made up and it's been fine ever since. In fact it's still on its original alt' at 150K. The electrician showed me how he checked if the new connection was getting warm by dripping a droplet of water on the connection with the fuse box and seeing if it evaporated......clever eh? Quote
richyrich Posted May 25, 2007 Report Posted May 25, 2007 GaryM,Mo4, some time ago I had exactly the same problem and added to a thread from another guy and we had a bit of discussion about types of batteries that should be fitted,charge voltages, and possible faults with batteries - do you remember?I changed my battery and the fuse box as I reckoned the fuse box was damaged because of the high current being produced by the alternator(rated at 150 amps IIRC) to make up for the drop in voltage, this in turn was caused by(I reckoned at the time) a short circuit in a part of the battery.Anyway, never had a problem since. Quote
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