When your alternator goes out....................

[dogsharks]

......you'll be able to drive on the battery for a while. On some of my older cars, there is no ammeter or voltmeter, and I'm basically flying at night without instruments. I've had two incidents recently and I have to replace (or check for loose wires, etc) the alternator on my old 944. Here's what happens.

You're driving along, all is well. If it's raining you'll notice the wipers are going REAL SLOW. Headllights on, just drains the remaining battery power faster.

All of a sudden the car starts to falter, you instinctivly push in the clutch and try to nurse the motor, it seems to work for a moment, but you have precious little time to find a landing strip. If you're on the interstate you better get over to the median fast. If you have your headlights on at the time, turn them off immediately, and you'll be able to drive for a while longer. If you don't turn off those headlights, you have just a matter of seconds left.

I'm installing a gauge to give me some information about the charging system now, as this is no fun. It happened twice and after charging the battery, I finally figured it out, duhhhhh, no charging from the alternator. Had I been in the 928 it would have shown up on the gauge.

The voice of experience.

regards, Dogsharks




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[Marquis_Rex]

I was thinking about this, on older cars, like 944s and old Bimmers, you probably CAN drive for a while with no alternator.
On something like a 993tt, I wonder how long before the battery is totally dead, what with it's High pressurised brake, clutch and steering system, ABD, etc etc.
I got thinking this when my alternator belt on my 993tt snapped....

>> Edited by Marquis_Rex on Sunday 9th October 17:59

[Raven Flyer]

On injected cars, I would not recommend running until it dies.

The fuel pump will be at reduced output and the injectors will be below optimum performance, both of which could have the car running very lean in the last few, dying minutes.