The alternator on my TT seems to have packed in. I was driving home from work on thursday night and the battery light came on a mile or so from the house - I just presumed the alternator was goosed or I'd lost the belt. Next morning the car was so dead I couldn't open the remote central locking - this was a bit odd as I had only run it for a few minutes the night before since the problem materialised.
Saturday morning I jumped it off the A4 and it seemed to be running fine under its own steam, but my multimeter battery had died so I couldn't check voltages etc (incidently that 9v battery in my multimeter lasted 14years - is this a record?
).Went out this morning to try again and the car was once again completely dead. Battery was reading 0.25v - so whatever else was going on, it seemed like I either had a major current drain or the battery had decided to stop holding a charge. Jumped started it again off the A4 and gave it a few minutes. Started it up and took the leads off - battery/alternator output now reading 16.8v whilst running!!
So I would assume from this that the voltage regulator on the alternator is shot and has maybe destroyed the battery...
So new regulator (or alternator if I can't source a regulator) and I would guess likely a new battery too now...I've got the car booked into a local garage on Monday to have this sorted (just haven't got time to DIY at the moment) but I'm wondering;
1) am I going to do more damage driving it? I'm happy enough it will run okay to get me there (although it won't restart if I turn it off for more than 10mins or so).
2) Anyone heard of a battery being goosed that quickly by supplying an overly high voltage? Or is there maybe just a circuit preventing it charging if the voltage is too high... which would save me the cost of a new battery (the old one is only a year old).
3) Anything I haven't considered (before I find myself stuck on the dual carriagway in rush hour, waiting for the AA/RAC/fire brigade
)Any input would be welcome...
Cheers
