went Blackpool last week, on Wednesday night whilst stationary going through the lights noticed engine note changed and a dull whine which increased with revs, quickly got out and checked belts etc everything seemed ok so carried on as no warning lights or messages other half panicked so told her probably a/c pump bearing or alternator may even have digested a flap and not to worry lol,
next day took a closer look in the daylight noise seemed to be coming from alternator one way clutch bearing. for the first time ever I had no tools as had to leave my van at work and get a train home the week before so chose to ignore it......anyway carried on holiday going through lights every night and going in and out of Blackpool every day with no problems other than a whine
anyway packed up to come home yesterday (Saturday) didn't even get off the campsite when "ping pong warning make a safe stop battery not charging" oh sh!t along with a ear bashing off the mrs lol...........what a delemer do I chance driving to my parents in Newcastle-under-lyme or try out the breakdown cover which is part of my bank account......
given I had a 4year old child on board chose to call the breakdown as didn't fancy breaking down on the motorway if it give up the ghost, so I rang them and they said they would have a patrol man with me within 75mins, fair do's when I said my daughter is special needs and getting stressed they got one to me in 20mins and insisted they would not send a recovery truck until he had attended even when I pointed out my job ..........
so the nice guy from the RAC turned up had a quick test with his meter and said sorry cant fix it "no **** I thought" he went off on his phone came back 5mins later and said theres no alternators for you car in Blackpool and that they use ecp he also phoned repairing garages with no luck as they don't like to recover but use repair and go garages (wonder why) so a recovery truck was called which had to come from Manchester
I did tell him im in the trade so wouldn't be paying extortionate money anyway
at this point little one was very agitated so decided to get recovered to parents rather than all the way to south wales which I didn't really fancy, so phoned my son who is also in the trade to get an alternator....gave him my reg chasis number 5mins later he rang back got a bosch alternator so off to stoke we went...........2hrs later car was off loaded so we set about removing the alternator and 30mins later it was out .............
problem solved well I thought ..........turned out there are 2 types fitted a denso type and bosch type and guess what it was a denso type FFS as it was 4pm by now so limited places open....luckily enough ecp was open and had a a new genuine denso one in stock which they let me have for £145
so a disaster ended well in the end
so the moral of the story is................
if you get a whine do check the alternator as your on limited time .........which The Zohan does point out on various threads regarding the clutch bearing failing
check the type fitted bosch or denso as they are different I think they changed around 2008
don't trust factors they can even get it wrong with chasis number and reg
one last thing I removed and replaced the alternator from the top which took 1hr 15mins and job is within the scope of most people
will leave you all to chuckle at my miss fortune lol