[pierremcalpine]

Having some fun trying to diagnose a problem my daughter is having with our 2003 V40 1500 miles away!

We face-timed and I had her rev the engine and she's suggesting that a whirring noise is taking place in the vicinity of the aux belt. Hard to tell from the video call but I think she may be right. She says it started after she hit a minor bump on the road. The noise is present at idle and increases in volume and pitch as you accelerate or rev.

I called the shop and their guess was a defective alternator, in line with my thinking too. How far do you think she can get before the battery itself dies if in fact the alternator is to blame for the noise? That of course assumes that just because it's making noise it means its dead which may not be the case I guess...

It looks like she needs to get another drive in that will be about 6 miles long...gulp. Should be ok I guess.