# Sorry for the long post, need a little help with "Alternator Workshop!"



## gduncanson (Jan 15, 2008)

Here in CT, Fall is taking hold and the morning temps are in the mid 50's. I went out one morning as usual and drove my son to school and on the way back decided to turn on the rear wipers to clear the dew; which I haven't done since wiping the defrosted ice away last winter. They worked but a couple mins later all the lights on the cluster began blinking and after a few more minutes the brake light began blinking which coincided with loss of engine power. I nursed it the last 1/2 mile home and coasted into the driveway. Trying to restart the engine just resulted in a series of rapid relay clicking.

It was still early so I checked the battery voltage at 10.5v, and thinking dead battery, I went and exchanged my 22 month old battery for a new one and it started right up when installed. So I drove to work and a few work sites before heading home. At about the 2 hr mark of driving, the experience of the morning repeated itself again in the same sequence. I checked the Battery voltage again and it was at 11.5. Bought another battery at a local parts place to get home.

The next morning I checked voltage at the battery, before starting it was 11.5, with engine running, voltage drops to 10v. Suspecting a bad alternator I began combing here and the web for answers. I drove it to AutoZone and they hooked up their tool and deemed the New battery "good but needs charge" and when they ran the alternator test it came back "insufficient charge to run test". At which point he asked me to start the car and he pulled the neg. cable off the battery and the engine died-his "öld school" test to determine if alternator was bad or not. At home I got under the car to see if i could identify whether it was a bosch or valeo and noticed only the B+ cable on the Alternator housing. Hoping it was the broken blue exciter wire, I went to the dealer and bought a new pre-crimped connector wire and reused my old connector housing to connect the blue wire to the alt. As a result of that repair I now get a Battery LED on the cluster when Key is switched to On and when starting (which its absence I hadn't noticed before) and shortly afterwards I get the "Alternator Workshop!" message and the Battery LED does not go out.

But now it was 1 o'clock on Saturday and the junk yard that had the 66k used Bosch Alt was closed. The neg. and pos. cables look clean and rust-free but I cleaned them anyhow and I checked all the fuses in the primary panel. Now my not-running and running voltage reads the same 11.75 v. Checked the belt and pulley which look great too. Read something about Manual Transmission cars having a special pulley that can freewheel?

I assume my Alternator failed randomly (nothing to do with rear wiper, or a wiper motor elec. issue) and I wasn't alerted because the blue exciter wire was broken. some questions--Is there a block of Link Fuses on this car (I have them on my other vw's). The car has 140k on it so I'm pretty comfortable with the service position requirement to do any engine maintenance, but looking up at it from below it appears as though the aluminum a/c lines are in the way of removing the alt, can these be shifted out of the way without opening them? Are there any other things I could do to nail this one down to the alternator. Is there any way to check amperage output?

My car: 2003 GLS wagon, with 140k on it, 2.8l engine and manual tranny


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## gduncanson (Jan 15, 2008)

*AutoZone Results*

Removed the Alternator this monring. It's a Valeo which I understand can sometimes be fixed by simply replacing the brushes. Took the Alt to Autozone and they put it in their bench for testing, it failed everything. So i'll be picking up that used Alt tomorrow.

Quick Test:
Lamp/Diode Trio: FAILED
Regulator Test: FAILED
Rectifier Test: FAILED

Test Min. Reading Max.
Battery B+ Volts 13.50 0.00 15.40
Ripple volts 0.00 0.00 2.00
Lamp On volts 0.00 0.87 8.00
Lamp Off volts 12.00 0.00 0.00


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## bert06040 (Feb 10, 2011)

I know your pain. My alternator went on my Passat 6 months after I purchased it back in 2012. Long story short, it was too cold in Hartford to play mechanic (winter) so I had the dealer. I was out about $500. Running like a champ though.


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## gduncanson (Jan 15, 2008)

*finished*

My junk yard hadn't pulled the Alternator out of the heap yet and I had taken the afternoon off to put it in.

Having read that the brushes are usually the first to fail, I stopped at Sears and picked up two brushes of nearly the exact dimensions to replace the old ones (sanded to perfect fit). Autozone retested my Alternator and it passed. Even with the late start I got it all back together tested. Feeling pretty good about the final bill  the voltage is 14.29 engine running.

$ 2.00 the net difference for new battery exchange after taxes and core
$ 13.00 for a foot long piece of wire from the dealer to repair the blue exciter wire
$ 8.96 for two brushes


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