Another member broken down , But with a smile

Well after owning my R for nearly a year it's finally broken down ..

Noticed the ABS light on and thought thats not right  so thought i'll stop in a min
then when i put my foot down it stuttered and miss fired so thought Bugger !

Checked on the power fc hand controller and the battery voltage was 8.2v   managed to pull into a car park and it cut out .

Alternator is goosed !

So called the AA who came out and
He said "I'll tow you home "  told him he won't
Told him to give me a new battery  so he fitted one and i fired up and drove home .

Not bothered tho because i have AA breakdown repair cover .
So basically the AA will pay for all repairs upto £500 . 

Good job because the cheapest decent altenator i could find is £220 + vat

Lol very shocking that the aa think it would be ok to tow 

there useless leighton i know they probably hear it alot and others may not know what they're talking about but i told them bottom end was knocking oil light on and it was a pulsar and 4x4 so would not tow i needed a flat bed and it was nearly 1 in the morning.only to wait until half 2 when a lad turned up saying he would keep  trying and start it i said like f++k can you not hear i turned it over once its bottom end knocking its tits off so he replied right i will back up and tow you i said no chance its 4wd to which he said no problem just  leave it in neutral i explained holding back from dropping him,he said well in that case you need a flat bed which i waited until 4 am for. 

unlucky mate is it because of where you live that its so much ? i am sure i got quoted on reconed units are only £80 exchange

My abs light came on one year when I was holiday in Cornwall, my bloody bottom bolt on the alternator sheared so wasn't charging. I waited till the last day and called breakdown, told them I wanted it recovered so I got an economical Kia for the journey home and the pulsar turned up a few days later 

It might be the bottom pulley rather than the alternator that's goosed!

if it was bottom pulley it would have over heated on the 9 mile drive home .....

No it wouldn't! The charge on your battery would of dropped and the abs light would have come on!
Trust me I know

surely if it wasnt spinning the alt enough to charge it . it wouldnt be spinning the water pump or the power steering pump

I've never known it to over heat!
And when it happened to me on my first Gtir on the way home from picking it up in the first hour of buying it. About 20 mile drive home it just flattened the battery!

how bizzare ..   i'll have a l ook tomoz

I would bet my last £1 on it being that! It's a common thing to go!

what actually fails on the bottom pulley

The vulcanised rubber fails.
The outer ring pulls away from it.

By bottom pulley do you mean crank pulley Stu?

Yes Gaz

So what dous it do? Stop turning with the crank or something, thought it had like a spline?

In a sense gaz its like two circles bigger and smaller belt is on the bigger outer one joined by the rubber and the rubber due to age etc fails and the outer part comes off or just spins which inturn stops aux belts working the other bit connected to the crank  is still turning the smaller circle

they are ok to tow them as long as all 4 wheels are on the ground, aa usually use a bar for towing which doesnt lift the front wheels.  so ive been told, i had to tow mine when the clutch went

Isnt something like under 30mph but only for a certain distance or something like that .

the car would not overheat and ps would still work if the damping rubber was split as the damper is only a part of the big pulley which runs the ac and alternator.
however if the outer ring breaks free and moves towards the engine then it can quickly eat through the other auxiliary belt, but most of the time it moves away from the engine towards the inner wing

but then it could just be the alternator!

Digitalfaze wrote:they are ok to tow them as long as all 4 wheels are on the ground, aa usually use a bar for towing which doesnt lift the front wheels.  so ive been told, i had to tow mine when the clutch went

very short distance only at slow as possible speed 30mph max it damages ie winds up the diff

Thats what i thought johnny remember reading it somewhere ....just wasnt 100% on the exact procedure .

oh dear i had to tow mine a few miles to the garage to be fixed dont think it was over 30mph though

My crank pulley separated and sheared through my belts

well it was the Alt that failed