4bye4
7th June 2015, 04:59 PM
Is it just me or what. About a month after I bought my 2005 GU, about two years ago, I was driving on a freeway and all the dash lights came on. Took it back to the stealer and they fitted a new alternator. Now, last Friday I pressure cleaned the engine bay and now the alternator has gone again. No regulator so, as you increase revs the charge just goes up to over 18 volts and keeps going north. OK, Ill fit a new alternator, but probably an aftermarket one with external regulator if I can. Question is, these seem a bit fragile to me. I have washed engine bays before and know how to be careful. Its seems to me that as these vehicle may even get the alternator wet during water crossings etc, that they should be able to handle a bit of water. It appears that in this case the water from the pressure washer has combined with red dust in the alt and shorted out the rectifier/regulator. I don't know why the first one failed as I just took it back to the dealer.
There is no dash alarm for this fault either. As the voltage increases you get the gearbox temp alarm, the battery alarm, hand break and engine alarm and the air bag indicator flashes. Take your foot off the accelerator and lower the revs and the lights go out. I am just luck I could figure out what was going on. If my missus had been driving she would have either ignored and kept driving at speed and cooked the batteries and maybe other stuff, or stopped and had to wait for help. Anyone else had this happen?
There is no dash alarm for this fault either. As the voltage increases you get the gearbox temp alarm, the battery alarm, hand break and engine alarm and the air bag indicator flashes. Take your foot off the accelerator and lower the revs and the lights go out. I am just luck I could figure out what was going on. If my missus had been driving she would have either ignored and kept driving at speed and cooked the batteries and maybe other stuff, or stopped and had to wait for help. Anyone else had this happen?