Wife's car lost all power - Any thoughts?

[GreatGranny]

Just had a call from the wife to say the family bus (Alhambra TDi) has just dies big style.

Suddenly lost all power + electrics. Managed to coast into pub car park with no power steering or assisted brakes. All readouts ie. odometer, trip computer have zeroed and nothing when she tries the key.

Green Flag have just arrived so we'll see what they say.

In the meanwhile whats the PH view?

[Codswallop]

Complete guess, but could it be the battery after an alternator failure?

[horza]

Fanbelt.

And maybe she didn't notice the battery light??

[roachcoach]

Surely the odo shouldn't zero?

[joebongo]

Petrol in the tank.

[Triumph Man]

OP, when you say 'zereod' do you mean the displays have gone blank? Could it have potentially been a loose battery lead that has come off or lost connection?

[GreatGranny]

Green flag turned up tried to jump start it but wouldn't fire up. Seems they can't be arsed to look further into it so are towing it home. Not much help.

[bqf]

Loose battery connection or bizarrely, perhaps the battery has fallen out of the car - it does happen.

[The Jolly Todger]

bqf said:

Loose battery connection or bizarrely, perhaps the battery has fallen out of the car - it does happen.

Not sure how much luck Greenflag would have had trying to jump start it if the battery had fallen out.

[16v stretch]

GreatGranny said:

Green flag turned up tried to jump start it but wouldn't fire up. Seems they can't be arsed to look further into it so are towing it home. Not much help.

The situation described does sound like an alternator failure of some description (belt or otherwise) your other half will be given a job sheet, if he's done any quick tests on the battery to ascertain your missus might not have even noticed as it's a 10 second job and if he has used a jump back (attaching to both battery terminals) then it may well have a built in multimeter/volt regulator so he would be able to see if the battery is capable of charge.

If your battery is too degraded it won't hold charge, this could overstress the alternator causing it to fail. Not much that can be done at the roadside I'm afraid.

If you have any issues drop me a pm with some details and I can look into it for you and potentially give you some advice.

[kpb]

Ignition module failure can make wierd things happen to the dash display.

[wolf1]

Check the connections to the main maxi fuses located above the battery. One of the main live feeds usually has a bad connection and gets a bit hot.

[wolf1]

Check the connections to the main maxi fuses located above the battery. One of the main live feeds usually has a bad connection and gets a bit hot.

[neiljohnson]

wolf1 said:

Check the connections to the main maxi fuses located above the battery. One of the main live feeds usually has a bad connection and gets a bit hot.

whs the box may well have melted make sure if its this you also change the wire that goes to the starter/ alternator at the same time

[Steve H]

Since we are throwing guesses in I'd go for dodgy earth strap to engine or body.

[Steve H]

kpb said:

Ignition module failure can make wierd things happen to the dash display.

Not on a tdi

[Nick3point2]

I'm going to say ECU.

[CaptainSlow]

Snapped cambelt.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Immobiliser fault?

[gaunty]

Hello mate how old is it? We have these cars at work and our brand new one did this after 400 miles. It ended up having a new ecu put in sorry to say that.