Alternators - Rectifier or Regulator. Most likely fail?

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

The Alternator has gone on the wife's Clio, no charge, battery light on. The battery was very weak and I suspect it was putting a lot of strain on the alternator trying to charge it up. I have already bought another battery.

Option 1: Buy a new alternator costing around £75-£100
Option 2: Since the alternator is actually quite new (replaced in 2007) I'm tempted to rebuild it myself and save a bit of cash. I have the alternator on the bench and having inspected the windings, everything looks good.
A new rectifier is £11.20 and a Regulator/brush pack is £11.52 (the brushes on mine look fine btw)

What do you think is most likely to fail?
I can just buy both parts which including VAT and P&P comes to £35...but is one part much more likely to fail than the other?

The reason I'm trying to save some money is because I want to sell the car! Typical.

[Smike]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

The Alternator has gone on the wife's Clio, no charge, battery light on. The battery was very weak and I suspect it was putting a lot of strain on the alternator trying to charge it up. I have already bought another battery.

Option 1: Buy a new alternator costing around £75-£100
Option 2: Since the alternator is actually quite new (replaced in 2007) I'm tempted to rebuild it myself and save a bit of cash. I have the alternator on the bench and having inspected the windings, everything looks good.
A new rectifier is £11.20 and a Regulator/brush pack is £11.52 (the brushes on mine look fine btw)

What do you think is most likely to fail?
I can just buy both parts which including VAT and P&P comes to £35...but is one part much more likely to fail than the other?

The reason I'm trying to save some money is because I want to sell the car! Typical.

If the regulator goes it often means the battery gets cooked and will start smoking - did that happen?

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

If I put the battery on the charger it draws a lot of current, but never charges up enough to turn the engine over - so it may have been damaged?

[maniac0796]

Do you actually know the alternator is shot?

[Engineer1]

This I'd sling a new battery in first and check the connections, the weather in the past month or so has been bad enough to cause issues for a lot of batteries as people are driving round with lights, heater, radio etc all on which may well mean you are drawing more than you are replacing slowly draining the battery.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Thanks for the replies.

The battery was shot - £20 for a replacement from the scrap yard (Halfords 3 year maintenance free jobbie with a 2009 date stamp = result)

And also it was the regulator in the alternator that had gone. I guess the extra load trying to charge the battery blew it. £10 incl P&P from eBay. Certainly better than shelling out around £100 for a whole new alternator!

Definitely worth trying to repair things like this at component level.