My car just broked.

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2007
Posts
14,116
Location
South Shields
Not funny.
Was driving back from the cinema tonight, and the battery light was on. The battery being fine i thought it must have been some sort of slternator problem and vowed to get it looked at in the morning. However, about 6 minutes later the car goes dead. Engine, radio, lights etc off. gone. kaput.
Dashboard shows Boot light, batterylight, oil light. Looks in the engine bay and sees the drive belt hanging off. That doesnt explain the apparent electrical system also going kaput.
Am i correct in thinking that the belt coming loose (It doesnt look snapped, but i dont have a torch, just felt around and tugged it and wound it round and it didnt feel snapped) must have blown the electrics of the car?

Its a Rover 214 S reg 1.4ise. I like it, so no derogatory comments. Oh, and i know very little about cars. Looks like im going to have to ring up a garage tomorrow and get it towed and fixerated. The battery is fine, the car doesnt turn over at all, turn the ignition key and there is nothing there.
 
What do you think drives the Alternator? The battery is flat, hopefully you haven't damaged it (Lead acid don't like going below 50% charge).

Wait till morning, check the belt, and the belt tensioner (usually the alternator itself).
 
I didnt notice it being off however, central locking works fine, hazards work fine, but its 4 miles from home. So looks like im going to have to take a bag of spanners and a torch/multimeter to check some fuses as well before ringing garage. I might be able to get it going. Then again, probably not.
 
i have a 214 there nice and fun :) mine is not going to pass its MOT next month... loads of rust and little bits here an there... boo... sorry dont know much about cars but just wanted to give you a vertual high 5 for having such an ace motor :D


edit/ you might beable to bump it?
 
If the belt is restored to its correct location and tension, bumping should work.

The reason the lights and radio still work is because they draw very little current, the starter motor however draws tens of amps.
 
Nah, the lights and radio dont work. Thats why i think it may have blown some fuses. Possible something in the engine fuse box. Im just clutching at straws about that. My trusty multimeter will help me there.

I like the car. Never had a pick of bother with it. Apart from this. Ironically, i was thinking of getting breakdown cover last week. D'oh!
 
Draining a battery won't blow fuses. Driving without an alternator (or rather, a connected alternator belt) will.

Charge the battery, replace the belt. If it won't start you have almost certainly killed the battery by draining it too far.
Does the alternator belt also drive the water pump on these? I hope not for your sake.
 
Lopéz said:
Draining a battery won't blow fuses. Driving without an alternator (or rather, a connected alternator belt) will.

Charge the battery, replace the belt. If it won't start you have almost certainly killed the battery by draining it too far.
Does the alternator belt also drive the water pump on these? I hope not for your sake.
Click to expand...

Nah the waterpump is driven by the cambelt on a k-series luckily. :)
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
you discharged the battery i recon, driving without the belt on.
Click to expand...

Yup.

Did this in my 205, drove along with battery light on, thought it must not be charging properly, gave it more beans :D and then as it wouldn't go out after about 1-2mins I pulled over, popped the bonnet and had one shredded auxiliary (alternator) belt.

Changed it and it worked fine. :)

InvG
 
You will be suprised at just how quickly things will fail if your alternator packs up. If its been on its way out for a while and its been under charging the battery then things will go down hill pretty quicky once its finally stopped working. Charge your battery if you can, replace the belt and see how it goes.
 
Doesn't logic suggest that the aux belt was just loose and therefore needs replacing and retensioning? Would it be prudent to try this before replacing the alternator as well?
 
Why is this even a discussion. The aux drive belt came off, the alternator wasnt being driven (hence the obvious sign of the BATTERY light, meaning the car is on battery - should have stopped at this point!) yet you had the lights and stereo etc on.

The battery drained, obviously, so the car appears dead. Locking works because it has a very low power requirement.

To fix - replace and correctly tension aux drive belt, charge the battery or jump the car. Hope the battery is still servicable.
 
Nope. What has happened is the Alternator mounting bracket sheared, blowing the 80A engine fuse. Hence no power. The battery is fine. The battery light came on minutes before this happened, and i was on my way home at half past 11 at night.
The belt was loose because the alternator is not tensioning it. Problem is finding a new bracket.
 
The alternator bracket came off :eek: Ok fair enough, i was with the others in the thread i assumed you were being a thicko and just hadnt noticed the battery light!
 
Well, this is a pic of the offending bracket. What it looks like has happened, is the bottom mount for the alternator has at one point lost its nut and the bolt has fallen out. The alternator then fell off and sheared the bracket. This bodge job got me home. Yes, that is a thin piece of aluminium off the rear of a pc case. Drilled and tapped into the aluminium bracket. Glad i bought that bench drill from Aldi now :D. If the part is the wrong one, looks like ill have to make one myself. Ill make it from steel instead though. Replaced the 80A fuse and the car was fine. Battery was spot on and started instantly as usual.

bracket.jpg


Managed to source a new one, and it should be coming tomorrow. The car will not be getting driven till then. I am, quite frankly, amazed that it held (And feel quite smug too!). It was enough to get me home.
 
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