Well I replaced the alternator and everything is good now. I had been getting the voltage light intermittently for a few months, so i think the alt was going. I really hope it wasn't the cable between the alt and the bat which was loose. I have two thick guage aftermarket power wires running between the battery and the alt. I doubt it was loose because the ends are soldered on and pretty secure. I really hope it wasn't that. The bad thing is that the Bosch alt I had on before had a lifetime warranty but I had to trade it in to get the cheapo Autozone alt's core deposit and so they can install the pulley on the new alt. Seems like the lifetime warranty is not very useful when you are stranded. Maybe I should have kept the bosch and ate the $60 core deposit. nah. I was stuck and needed an alt. Sometimes you just gotta throw on Autozone parts cuz that is the only thing available on short notice. Hopefully that solved the problem and the ignition switch is fine. But wait I would have had a spare alt if Bosch would have replaced it. damn, I suck.
Larry 91 GTI 16V 99.5 A4 1.8T At 10:49 AM 9/8/2001 -0500, you wrote:
From your description, I'd guess that your alternator isn't putting out - carry along a spare regulator/brush assembly, and put it in before bothering to jump-start the car. Chances are, you'll find one brush short (worn or broken). A quirk of VW's electrical system is that NO output from the alternator doesn't give the warning light. Question: SHOULD you have been in need of fuel? The gas guage makes a fair warning for battery draining down due to no alternator! HTH! Ron ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Velez" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 9:31 AM Subject: Shorting Starter a bad thing? Hi all, So after a couple of weeks of not driving my 16v, I took her out for a nice cruise with a bunch on NYC area guys. Everything ran great until the end of the night when I stopped for gas. The ignition would not do anything. Not even an intention of cranking. It has happened to me before and I think its just the ignition switch which has finally crapped out. (although I replaced a year ago). So I am stuck in the gas station at 4am with no real room or help to jump start it. So I decide to short the starter with a screw driver. It works, and the 16v starts right up. So I figure I'm good enough to get home. I drive about 15 blocks and the radio turns off and the lights dim. Then when I hit a red light the car dies. After that, no amount of key turning would start the car. I was afraid that I blew something with the screw driver trick so I didn't want to try that again. But after an hour of 'jiggling the cable' I decide to try the screwdriver again but this time it first spins without cranking and then would try to crank and sound like its locking up. The battery also seemed to be weak at that point. So I decided to lock up the car and take a cab home. I am on my way to go get her now and try to start her up so I can get her back home. Anybody have a theory as to what happened? Seems like it may have been a combination of bad ignition switch and something wrong with the alternator. I am thinking that after I started it up at the gas station the alternator was not doing its thing and when the Optima finally drained, everything died. But I am not sure if I caused the alternator to fail with my stupid screwdriver trick. ok, off to get my baby, she must be scared and lonely out there. Larry 91 GTI 16V 99.5 A4 1.8T
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