Alternator Died (I think)

Hi folks Have been lurking for a while, well 12 months trouble free motoring has just ended. Last night battery light came on, followed by the PSM lights and the ABS lights. Managed to get the old girl home, at night, side lights only with battery voltage dropping all the way home (15 miles), was down to 10 volts by the time I reversed into the garage. Anyway before I ring Porsche tomorrow (I have a warranty) is there anything else this could be? Rgds Craig

Hi Craig, and Welcome! Sounds like the alternator to me too.

Same thing happened to me last year. Unfortunately I had just passed the exit on the motorway for my house as decided to have a blast down to the next junction and back. I ended up on the hard shoulder for an hour waiting for Porsche Assistance. OPC charged £1500 for the Alternator (!) that fortunately was covered under warranty. OPC told me if the alternator isn't working you have about 10 minutes before the car braks down.

Must have been lucky, I managed about 20 mins. But it was like Apollo 13, turning things off to save volts! Porsche assist taking it to Sheffield on the 6th hopefully.

You can buy new or recon units from the OPC but before you do anything do a search on here - one owner just changed the diode pack on the alternator and it solved their problem for about £35. Its a Bosch part number thats shared with Mercedes cars from recollection

My local auto electrical agents can recondition a 996 alternator for around £100 all in. I was quoted £300 + at the OPC exchange or in excess of £800 for a new one. In the end it was OK. If you live in Lancashire I can let you have the company name - but I am sure most areas of the country will have these types of repairers.

Thanks for the help guys, I have an extended warranty so I am expecting it to be covered.

If its the Porsche warranty it will be fine, my alternator was replaced at OPC Sheffield

Confirmed by Sheffield OPC, alternator being replaced under warranty plus a few seals being replaced. A few things being done that were missed by the previous owner at the 48k service. Sheffield matched Hartech prices on everything including labour (£60+vat per hour), they didn't even quibble, I should have pushed for cheaper! I will post the details on the OPC discount section when I get the car back. Porsche Assist were also very helpful, nice Jag to potter round in for a few days with car transported to Sheffied for me.

Got the car back the other day, reconditioned alternator in. Service was also due, Sheffield OPC also matched Hartech on Spark Plug Change, Brake Fluid Change (both last done in 2004), Fuel Filter/Polyrib and Labour rate. Took nearly £300 off the bill. They also did what I saw to be £5k worth of other warranty work, mostly leaking seals etc.

£5k of warranty work - h*lls bells!! Can you elaborate on this - I am intrigued!

not true actually. As long as you have nothing electrical switched on like radio, lights,indicators etc then the car should run for a couple of hours or more on a good battery. Generating a spark takes very little power compared with all the other electrical stuff like windows and radio etc. My guess is it will be the diodes they cost shirt buttons and if you are handy with a soldering iron it shouldn't cost more than a few quid unless you particulaly want to use the original type diode pack but still a lot cheaper than a new alternator. Of course under warantee you'd just get the OPC to do it [ ]

Interesting, they did £6K of warranty work on mine in October that I didn't even realise needed doing too..............................

List of work that was done: Alternator was replaced Bank 1 cam cover resealed Front diff seals replaced Tip sump gasket replaced Replaced 1 ignition coil Bank 2 breather pipe seal replaced

That doesn't seem like much work for £5k. I guess that's why the warranty costs so much, and at that rate it's likely to go up again soon.

I am sure the warranty does not run at the discounted labour rate that I managed to get for the other bits.