The alternator on my 1995 K11 Micra has packed up. And possibly the battery, too.
What's the cheapest way to get working replacements?
* Ring round some scrap yards. But a friend at work advised me that there is no guarantee that their alternators would not be duff also. He advised I look for a reconditioned alternator. Where is the best place to get these and what is the likely cost?
* Maybe a daft question. Is it possible to buy second hand batteries?
Thanks
Mike
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Dont even bother trying to buy a 2nd hand battery ! False economy of the lowest order. Even car dealers dont bother on older cars; so it must be futile ! :)
2nd hand alternator depends on the luck of the draw. But get a price form a factor for a recon unit and you may be surprised.
In fact get a price for both from a factor and the deal may even get better !
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Thanks.
What do you mean by a factor? A car parts company?An auto electrician, maybe?
Mike
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Car parts company, Halfords, Roaduser etc.
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Neighbour had same issue with his laddie's Micra - alternator or battery?
He bought battery from local motor factor £30 (~50% off Halfords price) - odd shape so some outlets (Makro/Costco do not stock them)
Then found out it was alternator as the battery went flat in 48 hrs - alternator @ scrappy £15 was good value
Happy days!
2 weeks later his son wrapped it around a bus stop!
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I have been quoted 45 quid for a recon alternator. Thats a swap for the old one.
Alternator or battery. It's difficult to diagnose. But the alternator seems to be pumping out over 14V. And the battery seems to lose charge overnight. I'll try battery replacement first, I think.
Mike
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If you can find a good local auto-electrical place they will have the facilities to test the alternator for you if you take the component into them. Should they find something wrong then they should also be able to repair it for you, e.g. change the diode pack or regulator, which should work out cheaper than a reconditioned alternator.
If you're changing the battery anyway, and the alternator isn't putting out over about 15 volts (they can, undercertain fault conditions, output a very high voltage which will "cook" your new battery!) then just see how you go in the next week or so. With luck it might just have been the battery.
One final thing. Make sure that you haven't got a permanent load drawing current from the battery, even when the ignition is switched off and the car is locked-up for the night. I once needlessly changed a perfectly good battery for a brand new one, only for the new one to be totally flat the next time I came to use the car!
The reason?
On carrying out some investigative work I discovered there was a fault in one of the two horns fitted to this particular car. The horns were permanently live, even with the ignition switched off, and this particular fault was causing a current of about 3 amps to be permanently drawn from the battery even when the car wasn't being used. The horn didn't sound, it was just drawing this current continuously.
You can check for something similar by removing one of the battery connections and placing a digital multimeter set to measure current (amps) between the battery terminal and the removed lead(s). There is bound to be some current drawn in this condition with the ignition switched off due to alarm systems, etc, but anything over about 100mA needs further investigation.
Edited by Galaxy on 11/09/2008 at 11:10
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