Silver! Posted January 16, 2010 Report Share Posted January 16, 2010 Went out to the GTI which hasn't been run since before christmas.Started first time! Excellent, warm it up and blast it up the A9......revomed the remainder of the snow and ice from in front of it.Waited for it to reach 70deg......found a good CD...Right here we goOooooo...Quarter of a mile later, the battery light comes on, followed by the ABS light and the airbag light.Poo! Pull up to round-a-bout to enter garage forecourt: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! binnacle lights go out.Half way across the round-a-bout: xenons go off.I got into the garage turn it all off apart from the engine! Warning lights stay on, xenons flicker and one dies, turn off and neither come on again.Constantly giving me 3 beeps. Luckily not too far form home, so side lights work OK as do the main beam, so it's limp home on a mix of side and full beam.Radio also dead. Got home and turned it all off and no chance of a restart. Need to check belts and cables in the morning, but I assume the battery is OK as it held a charge over the arctic period.Spoilt my Saturday night blast though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 So I've not touched this since Saturday as I've been poorly. Went out to day to check belt and connections: All OK. Try to start: the battery was about dead, but she fired and started first time. No lights on, all seemed OK. powered up everything I could, no prob's. So I left her running and went in the house. Went back out 10 min's later and heard the engine stutter a couple of times, so looked inside: all warning lights on.Open the door, gave her a rev, but there was no power. She eventually died. So to all you who have had alternator\volt. regulator problems: Does this sound familiar?Pooo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_M Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Have you put a meter on the battery and the alternator to see what output is being given?When my battery was on its way out the volts were about 9 to 10 and I just got warning lights everywhere........my voltmeter notified me straight away, new battery and ta da.........back to norm again.........one of the cells must have given up and was not holding the charge as the alternator output was fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Cheers Mike, back to work tomorrow, so I'll bring a meter home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_M Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Alternator should output 14.4v when engine is running and the battery should be 12V even after many hours of not being charged. Check the battery before you start the engine and then check the alternator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfbr Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 anything between 13.4 and 14.8v is a good charge rate. Anything lower would generally say alternator issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VDub Lady Posted January 23, 2010 Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 Yep, this sounds just like what mine did.Went all crazy on me one day flashing lights on the dash and a lot of beeping going on.turned off - back on and nothing, back to normal.Next day bf drove it, seemed fine -then same thing happened, but he broke down - AA man put a booster pack on and got bf and Lui lupo home.After faffing with the battery and alternator and the multimeter, we discovered it was the alternator.popped a new one on, all good in the hood Al x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash24 Posted February 14, 2010 Report Share Posted February 14, 2010 exactly the same thing happened to me yesterday funnily enough! all of the above plus the windscreen wipers got REALLY slow... a bit dangerous but lots of funoff to euro car parts in the morning... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfbr Posted February 14, 2010 Report Share Posted February 14, 2010 @Ray... Did you get yours sorted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted February 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2010 Not needed the car so it's getting done tomorrow.lovely person. Borrowed a booster from mV Workshop at work to get me to the VW specialist tomorrow, but I thought I'd jump the GTI from the Dune this evening and leave them running still hooked up for a while ......unlock door, open boot. Alarm goes off. Try to cycle locking\alarm. Nope! Seems there's not enough power in the battery to disarm the battery so its going off even when the car is started. Turn off reset. Quiet......alarm! Ran the car fo a bout 10 mins before there was enough power in the battery with the engine off to reset the alarm. All started and ran fine for 20mins.Hope the booster has enough juice to power the ignition system for the 15mins to get to the garage. I'll jump it from the Dune to give me more juiuce in the booster, but I have a chum following me, ready to hook up the tow line if it should fail.I feel a Glencoe road trip coming on on Saturday or Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash24 Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 is changing the alternator an easy job?i.e. i've done quite a few jobs but never an alternator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted February 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Normaly fairly easy and straight forward: a mounting bolt, and adjuster bolt or two and a couple of cable connectors and refit the belt and adjust the tension, but in the GTI it looks to be tight.And my Saturday AM\PM is worth more than 1 or 2 hours of my VW specialists time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottgroovez Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 I managed to replace mine easily enough. Check for broken wires too, mine were in a bad state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robgti Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 when doing mine on the gti we loosened the drivers side engine mount to get to the bolts when changing it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash24 Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 hmmm so all GTi lads so far...any non-GTi lads tried this?cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted February 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 You will have more room in the engine bay and possibly no engine tray to remove, so it should be easier access. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted February 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2010 Yipee! I have my baby back! Feels nice to be surrounded by my 3 'girls'.Blast tomorrow!£237 all fitted.While I was picking 'her' up I was looking at a MK5 Golf GTI that was being given a once over after the mech's chum had just bought it.3 door, metallic black, 3,000 miles and the purchase porice? £12,000. Pretty gorgeous and a bargain to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash24 Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 just fitted mine this morning, was a hell of a tight fit though, must be a b***h on the GTisluckily the only thing i needed to get off to access it was the exhaust manifold cover and a second man to help get the belt on!£135 later, Renée is back on the road Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossjohnc Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Just seen this, all seems familiar. Apparently it's pretty easy to damage the alternator when doing a belt change. Mine was giving an output of almost 17v at idle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted February 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 When I tested mine it was between 7v and 9v at idle. Drove it to the garage on a battery pack borrowoed from work.£143 for the alternator and £58 +VAT for labour: I preferred spending my Saturday walking the dog and taking a nice road trip for lunch in the GTI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash24 Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 Just seen this, all seems familiar. Apparently it's pretty easy to damage the alternator when doing a belt change. Mine was giving an output of almost 17v at idle.i hadn't heard of alternator damage whilst changing the belt but now having done it i can see that it could be easily done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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