Yep, the car VW’d on me on NFB tonight. Everything went dead, voltage is at a whopping 5. Whaddya think? Should I replace the battery, alternator, or both? Car is a 2001 and I’m guessing both are original so I’m thinking I should definitely do the battery, even though the problem is probably a dead alt. I’m probably going to do both. Agree?
What.
The.
Fuck.
I just looked up the DIY for changing an alternator on VWVortex…
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2455185
What.
The.
Fuck.
Not to mention, that even with the VIN the dealership can’t tell me more specifically than FOUR (4!!!) different alts so I need to take it off before I can even source a new one!!!
werd do a battery now see if a alt light or anything pops up then worst case replace the alternator
Think there’s any chance it’s just the battery? :banghead:
if a batterys bad enough. and you had say ur lights radio wipers on. then u can load the car and shut it down. did it jump start and run? maybe you should replace the battery and get it tested
R U FUCKING KIDDING ME! JUST FOR A ALTERNATOR ALL THAT SHIT
If the alt’s shot and I replace the battery while leaving the alt, am I risking frying the new battery?
thats y batterys hae warrantys
^Touche. OK, maybe a new battery will at least get the car running long enough to turn around and get the front end in the garage, since it’s supposed to rain forever according to weather.com…
Well, she’s running on the new battery for now. I’ll let her idle for a while and check the voltage. Right after startup it was at ~13.5. If I don’t see 14.4 soon then new alt time…
kinda sounds like it’s not charging…
*zwarbyt had to go with some full-frontal nudity on his jetta last yr, too…
Down to 13.0. Dead alt. This oughta be fun…
lmk if u need a hand
reason number 5 million and twenty seven why i never want a german car without a warranty on it…
Thanks man. I’ve pretty much decided that this is beyond my combination of time/ability though, so I’m going to let someone else handle the hog. I’ll call a couple shops tomorrow and/or monday and have AAA tow it somewhere. If I had the time and didn’t need the car to get to work then I’d tackle it myself, but being that it is my DD I’ll have to wait for another chance to get my hands good and dirty.
This is yet another reason why I wish I had a second/toy car. I’d have something to drive when my DD grenades and in the mean time I’d have something to work on and take my time with and gain experience. As it is I feel like I know a good amount about cars & mechanics but I don’t have a whole lot of wrench experience. I need something to work on that doesn’t HAVE to be done come Monday morning.
Ah well, back to autotrader.com and figuring out how to ditch the Jetta for a Protege5…
This oughta be a quick $500…
The combination of your post and your sig makes me laugh. You have to tear the front end of the car apart to replace the alternator? Oh snap!
Well I’ve got a loaner car for a week+ if I want, and the procedure doesn’t look that difficult so I may set aside next weekend and do it myself. I’m going to call around for prices to have it done, so we’ll see.
Anybody have a hookup for an alt? The cheapest I’ve found online is $250 for a NEW Bosch 120A from germanautoparts.com.
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueler?
Hank/Skrapper?
welcome to the story of my A4
now replace your alternator…and find your reman was dead…
its not just german cars. i replaced the alt on my civic 4 times. the first time it took me and little jeller like 2 days before big jeller came and had it done in like 25 min lol. the last time i did it i had access to a lift, and it took me about 45 min all together. that thing fried alt’s every 6 months or so.
good luck mang… fuckin vr’s
do what i did. purchase a fuckin honda for a dd.
Yeah, that’s why I’m thinking $250 for a brand new Bosch is worth it for all the trouble involved if the reman bites it.
94wvwabcxyzpdq you’ve got a good point. A Civic HX @ 44mpg would be kinda nice right about now. Unfortunately I’m making payments on this thing and interest rates have jumped since I got the loan for this car so I’m going to have to stick with it for a while. But on the plus side my fiance’s sister is in Boston for the summer and left her '03 Accord 5spd home for me to borrow whenever my VW decides to do what VW’s do…