Has my alternator died...?
 

Hi all

Been a while since I was on here, and my beloved A8 D3 2007 3.0 TDI has seen better days too..

Recently got her reinsured after a period of about 3 weeks.. so the story goes like this..

I was leaving a local shopping centre car park, and like a numpty failed to notice the high kerb after the exit barrier. Needless to say, I ended up whacking the off side front wheel on the kerb. Gutted I pulled over and took a look at the damage, wasn't as bad as I thought.

Carried on driving home, and about a mile up the road, all of a sudden the power steering died, and I thought "I must have blown the tyre", I checked, but the tyres seemed fine.

Anyway, drove it home and left it. In the morning drove it for a mile or so again, and this time, the dash lights up, power seemed to go, and sure enough car ground to a halt.

Managed to get some jump leads on her, charged the battery up and drove her home.

Today started doing some research, and tested the voltage at the battery.. not charging. So I figure it's the alternator? Trying to find some info online and on this forum as to how to remove this and have found little to no info suprisingly.

Has anyone attempted a DIY alternator removal on a D3?
Does the front bumper and rad have to come off first?

Any help would be greatly received.

cheers
Ray

Definitely sounds like the alternator. Have you checked the Tech Dumps?

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9347

Power steering is still hydraulic on the D3 isn't it? If that's gone as well as the alternator is the drive belt still attached?

Hi and thanks for your reply. Yes I managed to find the tech dumps and am slowly making my way through them. I have established that I need to take off a number of items, including the poly belt in order to remove the alternator.

Currently planning this in my head and have the car on axel stands to make a start with this.

Only question that remains is do I remove the front bumper first.

so the belt that drives the power steering pump is the same one which is attached to the alternator pulley, and yes the belt is still attached.

Progress so far:

• So the under-tray has been removed (well it's been off for a while as I'd lost some of the original retaining plugs)

• I've attempted to de-tension the poly belt tensioner with the bumper in situ, but to no avail as the space between the radiator fan and the torx hole for the tensioner is very limited - so this leads me to believe that the bumper may need to be removed?

• Even with everything in place, i've managed to loosen off the two 13mm bolts that hold the alternator in place

Ultimately I think that whilst it may be possible to attempt the alternator removal with the front bumper in place, I feel I may end up spending more time fighting with lack of space and so might be better off just removing the bumper instead.. any thoughts for anyone who has done this before?

thanks all in advance..

Only in regards to removing the bumper. When doing so, remember that there are four electrical connectors to remove (one for each fog light, and then two together just to the right of centre), as well as the piping for the headlight washers.