156 GTA Battery light

[vulcan1208]

Had my GTA for 5 years to the day last saturday and sods law it was the first time something has failed.The battery light has sudenly come on and a check of the voltage across the battery shows it is not charging, is there anything obvious to check before I take it to the dealer?

[stuartalfa]

The connectors to my battery had come lose somehow, are they tight on yours?
Stu

[paulg390]

Oh dear I do hope its not your alternator as I've heard its a really nightmare to get at on the GTA.

[exgtt]

Check the battery connections, though it does sound like the Alternator and it is a biiach to change. Ps where are you located? If it's near Huddersfield i can highly recommend Alfa Tech, they have done loads of work on my 156 v6. There is a good specialist in Essex if your down south. The dealers with sting you with the above job as it's labour intensive (about 9 hours i think). I personnally wouldn't trust the dealers with a job like this.

[vulcan1208]

Whilst taking the car to the garage it broke down ( flat battery ), called out the AA and he put temporary battery under the bonnet to get me the final 2 miles to the garage at very low speed but didn't tie the bonnet down...result small dent in the roof and a new bonnet needed ( over £1000 ) but at least the new wndscreen was not damaged. Given the fact that my Maserati 3200 is in at the main dealers having a bottom end rebuild for about £4-5k I suppose another £1k is neither here nor there