Alternator Failure

Well, on the way to work yesterday and hit centre of Slough at 8am.. Monday morning at this time is manic but just as I start to cross one of the main crossroads the dash display went mental, Gearbox Failure, Enginer Failure, Engine disabled, dropped down off suspension onto blocks..

Engine was still running, so limped across lights and onto curb..

Now, I did what anyone would do, turned the engine off and tried to restart.. click click click... All the above messages but this time Alternator failure message..

Called Jason who confirmed for me that the Alternator was the failure and as it wasnt giving the 12v charge it shows up as everything failing..

Managed to get another hour out of the battery with the radio until tow truck arrived to take me home

My conern from all this was how the Alternator had failed like that with no warning.. The car started first time, as always, no strange dimming of lights anywhere or anything to suggest that the battery wasnt being charged..

Just thought I would mention it incase anyone else has a heart attack at the possible cost of seeing all these messages pop up at once..

New part being fitted Wednesday, so will let you know if all turned out rosie.. IN the mean time, I have loads of time on my hands now as its condemmed to the drive

Mine did that ...was just the battery in my case.. check yur battery first

no battery light came on on the dash?- usually i would think the battery light comes on very dimmley..
how do you test the alternator?

I had no battery warning ......Its a range rover it in that straight forward and sensible......All the warnings under the sun except the obvious that the battery were flat.

As I said, I had nothing to suggest the battery was an issue. No warnings, nothing and the battery was new last December, so would have thought it would be ok. Jason will check it all out for me tomorrow and fingers crossed it will al be ok.. Just glad it went now and not when I am in Holland in a few weeks time.

Well, Jason turned up, it started pouring with rain, spent an hour taking old one out and then to find new ones was the wrong one..

Put it all back together, boosted the battery and hey presto, all works fine.

Looks like it might have been a loose connection somewhere (hopefully)

I am going to invest in getting a volt meter on the dash so I can see when this happens again..

Hi tim seal

My rangie had an issue where i had the heater o rings changed and when it came backa new defect came up being whilst driving along all the dash lights will come on and guages drop to zero. this been happening fro a week now with means to investigate but no time.
Now it has started to not start in the mornings so i have to jump her??

Any ideas???

Change your battery

Charge your battery

Check your wires and connectors

where do i check these wires from mate? do i take the dash out etc?

Had asimiliar experience in my series,but on checking alternator connection had come loose .
been welding the previouis day and basically didn't reconnect it properly.
(no electronic gizzmos to tell you whats wrong)
Out with the starting handle and soon on my way. The series may not be the bees knees so to speak ,but at least it is simple and easy to fix,if and when the occasion arises.

i take it i need to tighten a cable on the alt then?

micheals said:

where do i check these wires from mate? do i take the dash out etc?

Click to expand...

Check the connectors on the actual alternator and the battery connectors...... firstly check your battery see if its knackered

Is alt esay to get to? The battery connections seem fine at the mo. I bought a new fuse box thinking that maybe the garage poured water into the fuse box and knackered it by mistake? Maybe its more simple than that then?

Download the Rave Manual in the common questions and answer sections...this will show you where stuff is in your car

Simple check for the alternator-should be getting around 14.5V at the battery with the engine running at around 1200 rpm. The charge light may not always come on if there is a charging/alternator fault