All of a sudden the dash pack lights up and the temp. tops out.
There's a mile or so of panic thinking, the electrical warning is flickering like a strobe and the engine symbol has turned red. No time to think, just get on that hard shoulder.
So, broken down on the side of the M4 I pop the hood, expecting to find something catastrophic, but other than the coolant bubbling like a kettle there was nothing...nothing!
whilst waiting for the AA to get there I spend a bit more time under the bonnet, when yes, I should have been buckled into my seat (broke down to the only area with fencing so you cant retreat away!), I spot that one of the belts doesn't look right... surely it should be more 'on' that pulley?
All the belts, tensioners and so forth were done by renault, on time, 2 years ago and this was backed up by the AA geezer saying how the belts looked "in good nick", so we scratched our heads.
"the pulley looks like it might be the problem" was what we left it on before I got towed back to some nationwide garage. Once we got there, we popped the bonnet again to chin-scratch.
And what did we find? Well, the alternators own mounting had snapped!
With this in mind, we came to this conclusion
)Alternator bracket failed
) knocked the aux belt
) which pulled it off of the water pump
voila, no cooling or electric
So, over to you now.
Is this likely to be the case?
And the AA will pick up the repair bill up to £500, including parts and labour. How much is a new alternator in this day and age?
There's a mile or so of panic thinking, the electrical warning is flickering like a strobe and the engine symbol has turned red. No time to think, just get on that hard shoulder.
So, broken down on the side of the M4 I pop the hood, expecting to find something catastrophic, but other than the coolant bubbling like a kettle there was nothing...nothing!
whilst waiting for the AA to get there I spend a bit more time under the bonnet, when yes, I should have been buckled into my seat (broke down to the only area with fencing so you cant retreat away!), I spot that one of the belts doesn't look right... surely it should be more 'on' that pulley?
All the belts, tensioners and so forth were done by renault, on time, 2 years ago and this was backed up by the AA geezer saying how the belts looked "in good nick", so we scratched our heads.
"the pulley looks like it might be the problem" was what we left it on before I got towed back to some nationwide garage. Once we got there, we popped the bonnet again to chin-scratch.
And what did we find? Well, the alternators own mounting had snapped!
With this in mind, we came to this conclusion
)Alternator bracket failed
) knocked the aux belt
) which pulled it off of the water pump
voila, no cooling or electric
So, over to you now.
Is this likely to be the case?
And the AA will pick up the repair bill up to £500, including parts and labour. How much is a new alternator in this day and age?
