Alternator

I'll bet you a Snickers bar it's the alternator.

QUOTE(****knocker @ 25 Nov 2009, 11:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>My alternator fried last night (i think), battery light on , whining from under the bonnet, called rac as i was at work, he listened to it confirmed that the battery wasnt charging and then informed me that my recovery would only get me 10 miles, i live 30 miles from work! so I winged it and drove home in the dark on side lights (unlit section of M5, nice!)

Anyway, ive only had the car 2 months and the supplying garage, (an independent bmw specialist) gave me a 3 month in house warranty, problem is there garage is 80 miles away, and i'm fairly confident that the car wont get that far just on the battery with no alternator.

So, I rang them up and they first said no problem bring it in and we'll sort it, i explained problem and they said that if i get the work done at a garage of my choice they will happily pay for parts, but not labour, which is fair enough i think.

This morning I took it to the nearest garage to home, explained my story, and just asked them to quote to supply and fit an alternator, eventually after loads of waffle (more later) they came up with alternator £160 belt £18 and labour £80 (2 hours) grand total of £310 inc vat, which i thought was pretty good, but then he started giving me all this flannel about they've had a lot of focus's in and its not always the alternator, more often its the "wiring" and they cant gaurantee that changing the 'nator will cure it, and perhaps i should let them explore this avenue first before changing expensive parts, well, the supplying garage are happy with the price of parts an will re-emburse me for everything, bar labour.

My question is, does whining noise+battery light+no charge=new alternator?, has anyone ever suffered this "wiring fault" and do those prices sound reasonable?

if you've read this far then well done and thanks for sticking with it to the end lol

cheers!

It is the alternator. How many miles the car done around 30,000? 2 hours labor, When i replaced mine it took me 4 hours to get it out.

its done 65k, so this is either 'nator number 2 or ford managed to build one that made its to the ripe old age of 60k

Yes it is almost certainly the Alternator - There are so many going on ST's at the moment that they are 3-4 day back order at the factory.

Max daylight range on a freshly charged battery is approx 50-60 miles (more if it is motorway type roads)

Of all the ones we have done to date (and it is many) we have not come across any wiring faults yet.

2 hours labour is also about right

update....

dropped car off yeaterday morning, get phone call late afternoon, i think "woohoo, gettin the beast back!" he says, can we discuss car, uho.....

"we havent started working on the car, parts late turning up, but we've had it up on the ramps and i looks like it'll take longer than 2 hours, probably 4 maybe more, infact we've got to take the bumper off"

4 hours + means a bill for nearly £500!!!!!!!
I say "oh...... (long pause) i'll ring you back

get the number for bristol street ford, ring service dept , £300 fitted inc vat, winner!! , but they cant do it for a week, boo!!

So then had to pick up car from original garage, top man there starts being a tw @ t , how can they do it that cheap, it'll be a shody job, etc, and i'm waiting for him to try and charge me for looking at the car, unfortunately for him one of the mechanics gave me the keys instead of him, so i just shouted "cheers!|" as i made a swift exit and wheelspan down the road before he had chance to say anything lol.

So i'm now off to bristol street to confirm the quote is fixed price and get it in writing..

why is nothing ever simple lol

next instalment of the saga coming soon....

Just goes to show its not really worth bothering with non-franchise garages, always take it to Ford! Unless of course its a well known place like Code Red/Wolf/DC etc.