Well, after getting my nice exhaust and rollbars sorted my car repaid me with a red battery warning light a week ago.
I believed it to be the voltage reg so changed that, but it didn't fix it. So I put the car into MB today to go on Star and check it out, they spent a couple of hours on it and said that the fault still points to the alternator.
The thing is, to be honest, it's a bit of a rip off. They charged me £230 for diagnostics, then want another £870 to supply and fit the alternator, and that is with a 'discounted' labor rate.
Considering I can get a fully recon exchange bosch unit myself for £167 (after surcharge for exchange unit deducted) and they quoted 2 hours to fit, that seems a bit mad.
I asked if they can source an exchange unit, but they said although it is an option in the system there are none available, so it could take weeks.
I went to collect the car, settled up and the car wouldn't start - they flattened the battery! :fail
So it's now stuck at MB.
I'm not sure what to do tbh, I'm not really prepared to pay another £870 after paying £230 already to have the alternator swapped. So I was thinking of telling them to source an exchange unit and go that way, that will still cost around another £500 which I would put up with, but they have no way of telling how long it will take.
The other option is to tell them tomorrow to get the car started so I can get it home, put the battery back on charge and then find someone else, or take it out myself when I get time and fit a new one for about £160. I phoned other auto electrical places and they have 150A alternators readily available for a good price too.
The problem is I won't have much time over the next week anyway, and tbh I couldn't see how to get it out (pipes in the way at the top and inner plate inside wing, and not enough room between the block at the bottom).
Does anyone have any thoughts? What would you do?
My symptoms were that the red battery warning light comes on when you rev the car over 2k if driving or if you rev it quickly on tick over. Other than that, it seemed to be rock solid at 14.5v. When you rev the car it would drop to 11.8 / 12v and put the light on, then take about 30 seconds on tick over for it to kick in again. I already tested the battery and put a full charge in it.
They seemed to think it was the alternator too, so I am going to ask them for a print out of their diagnostics tomorrow (and ask them to start my car so I can get it home!). Luckily it's literally a minutes drive from my house as it is just round the back, so as long as it still does 14.5v when started and driven slowly I should be ok to get it back in my garage.
I believed it to be the voltage reg so changed that, but it didn't fix it. So I put the car into MB today to go on Star and check it out, they spent a couple of hours on it and said that the fault still points to the alternator.
The thing is, to be honest, it's a bit of a rip off. They charged me £230 for diagnostics, then want another £870 to supply and fit the alternator, and that is with a 'discounted' labor rate.
Considering I can get a fully recon exchange bosch unit myself for £167 (after surcharge for exchange unit deducted) and they quoted 2 hours to fit, that seems a bit mad.
I asked if they can source an exchange unit, but they said although it is an option in the system there are none available, so it could take weeks.
I went to collect the car, settled up and the car wouldn't start - they flattened the battery! :fail
So it's now stuck at MB.
I'm not sure what to do tbh, I'm not really prepared to pay another £870 after paying £230 already to have the alternator swapped. So I was thinking of telling them to source an exchange unit and go that way, that will still cost around another £500 which I would put up with, but they have no way of telling how long it will take.
The other option is to tell them tomorrow to get the car started so I can get it home, put the battery back on charge and then find someone else, or take it out myself when I get time and fit a new one for about £160. I phoned other auto electrical places and they have 150A alternators readily available for a good price too.
The problem is I won't have much time over the next week anyway, and tbh I couldn't see how to get it out (pipes in the way at the top and inner plate inside wing, and not enough room between the block at the bottom).
Does anyone have any thoughts? What would you do?
My symptoms were that the red battery warning light comes on when you rev the car over 2k if driving or if you rev it quickly on tick over. Other than that, it seemed to be rock solid at 14.5v. When you rev the car it would drop to 11.8 / 12v and put the light on, then take about 30 seconds on tick over for it to kick in again. I already tested the battery and put a full charge in it.
They seemed to think it was the alternator too, so I am going to ask them for a print out of their diagnostics tomorrow (and ask them to start my car so I can get it home!). Luckily it's literally a minutes drive from my house as it is just round the back, so as long as it still does 14.5v when started and driven slowly I should be ok to get it back in my garage.
).
