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How far can you drive with a defective alternator

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Old Oct 15th, 2018, 21:07   #1
pierremcalpine
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Default How far can you drive with a defective alternator

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.
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Old Oct 15th, 2018, 21:40   #2
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I once did 12 miles in the dark and rain (car threw the aux belt) I made it home, although by the last few miles the headlights were like candles and nearly every dash warning light had come on, although as I say this was at night and during rain so I had wipers and the demister on as well as the lights, your range in this situation is probably near 10 miles safely, moreso in daylight, and potentially unlimited if you're (or in this case she) is prepared to charge the battery every time.
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Old Oct 15th, 2018, 21:51   #3
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Yeah, I'm guessing 10-20 miles tops. By the time she reaches the shop (in about 30min from now) she'll have likely gone 15 in total since the noise began...stand by for part II.
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Old Oct 15th, 2018, 21:58   #4
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I once drove my old Cavalier SRi with no charging at all. The battery was fully charged, I think, and I made it the 8 miles to work (actually to my girlfreinds house, but she lived evry nearby), but by the end of the journey all the gauges were starting to fail and the engine was stuttering. It wouldn't have made another mile, for sure.
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Old Oct 15th, 2018, 22:20   #5
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Well she made it! And now we wait for the call...a bad alternator wouldn't be too bad. My worry is that my daughter started to think that maybe the noise was coming from the engine itself...gulp. I really hope that's not the case.
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Old Oct 19th, 2018, 11:45   #6
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Update: broken exhaust pipe just up from the resonator. Morale of story: don’t use FaceTime to try to hear car sounds and diagnose: FaceTime will try to “clean” those noises out making a telltale broken exhaust sound I recognizable!
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Old Oct 19th, 2018, 12:09   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pierremcalpine View Post
Update: broken exhaust pipe just up from the resonator. Morale of story: don’t use FaceTime to try to hear car sounds and diagnose: FaceTime will try to “clean” those noises out making a telltale broken exhaust sound I recognizable!
lolol. Very wise words
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Old Feb 7th, 2019, 23:06   #8
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Exclamation Bad alternator warning

Hello,

This is my first post, so I hope I'm doing this correctly. LOL.
Driving my Volvo last week, and suddenly an ominous message appears on my car's message panel: "Charging failure-service urgent!" Was able to get the car home without a problem and the message disappeared. Husband drove the car the following day to test it and the message appeared again AND then all the power options went out, lights dimmed and he had a hard time getting it home because power steering had gone out. Ended up having to have it towed to mechanic (thankful for AAA!) because we couldn't even get it started. They ran diagnostics and turned out to be the alternator which had completely drained the battery as well. Luckily, all was covered under extended warranty and now I have a new alternator.
The take away here and wanted to give other's a heads up warning, if you ever see that message appear "charging failure-service urgent", do NOT hesitate and drive immediately to your mechanic or dealership because your car will die without warning. Not even kidding. Thanks all and I am thankful for this forum because I've found many answers to many questions I have re my Volvo.
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Old Feb 8th, 2019, 09:35   #9
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Back in the stone age the alternator in my old Lada died. I didn't even bother to replace it. It would run for a couple of days before charging the battery with an external charger. -The headlights were of course turned off.
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Old Feb 10th, 2019, 22:05   #10
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I once made it back from deepest Cornwall to Sussex with the belt hanging off the broken pulley.
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