Running car without an alternator

Stonedofmoo

Stonedofmoo

Stonedofmoo

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2002
Posts
6,242
Location
Portsmouth
Right, we are picking up a CRX tonight. But the alternator has siezed and will be disconnected

Who wants to bet how long the fully charged battery will last with everything but the essentials switched off?
We should get some longer life out of it as we will also plumb in one of those car booster battery packs :)

My guess is 15-20 mins tops
 
Zip said:
Ill say 45 minutes :)

Does driving with higher revs use more battery power :confused: :o
Click to expand...

Well yes - you're firing each cylinder more times in a minute; more sparks in a minute; more power required in a minute.

*n
 
penski said:
Well yes - you're firing each cylinder more times in a minute; more sparks in a minute; more power required in a minute.

*n
Click to expand...

I thought so.
Just to make sure i guess correctly drive with very low revs then at about 40 minutes rev the nuts off the poor thing and drain the battery :p
 
You need one of these:

CategoryImages%5CMPR25l.jpg
 
Stonedofmoo said:
Ah yes but in turn you would be moving faster so surely there wouldn't be much difference in the long run?
Click to expand...

Is that aimed at me or penski :confused:

If its aimed at me then just put it in neutral on the side of the road and rev it :p



Im not competitive :rolleyes:
 
You could always take a second fully charged battery with you, just in case? Perhaps...

My friendly local mechanic told me it 'probably wasn't a good idea' to try to drive a couple of miles without an alternator but that might have had something to do with the fact that there was no power steering pump either :p.
 
Stonedofmoo said:
Right, we are picking up a CRX tonight. But the alternator has siezed and will be disconnected

Who wants to bet how long the fully charged battery will last with everything but the essentials switched off?
We should get some longer life out of it as we will also plumb in one of those car booster battery packs :)

My guess is 15-20 mins tops
Click to expand...

Wrong wrong wrong :)

When the alternator belt tensioner failed on my 214, I was stuck in the middle of Wales. Bought a new battery and drove the hour and a half home, parked up in the pub for drinks (it was a funeral) and drove the 15 minutes home (I was drinking coke) with headlights on.

The car started another 5 times... so in total, I'd say I got around 3 hours from that battery.

For the next 4 days, I ran the car until the battery died, swapping it with a fully charged one until that one died. I got 7 cold starts with 30 minutes running time after each start before it died.
 
Just to check, the alternator belt doesn't drive anything else e.g. a water pump does it?

I've driven over 100 miles with no alternator, but with no lights or heater or wipers etc. being used. However, that was with a carburettored engine, fuel injection takes a surprising amount of current, just the pump can take up to 5 Amps.
 
As dogbreath said, I too have driven well over 100 miles with no altenator. Infact for the last 2 months of my Corsa's life I ran it by charging it up overnight as the altenator didn't work at all.
 
45 min to an hour it too for me to drive a new shape clio without alternator, then i blew the thing up. good job it was a hire car.
 
Alternator Blew up on my Rover 216 Vitesse. I drove it for 3 days until the replacement arrived. The battery was near enough dead and it had covered at least 70 miles. It totally knacked the battery though.
 
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