Problems in the alternator/battery loop...

[ThePatchWorkLady]

Bit of a update: put a new earth strap on the battery as mine was looking well dodgy and she looked and sounded fine, took her to a garage and asked a chap to take a look-said battery charging fine but my alternator belt is looking quite worn (wtf? it's about 3-4 months old) then the bloody thing snapped, didn't hear it but funnily enough-my battery warning light actually came on when I was on my way home and i stopped, opened the bonet, saw it has broken and then had to be rescued by yet another nice young chap from the rac.
He took a look and put a new alternator belt on, and it got me home but squealed most of the way.
Not sure what to think now. Ideally I'd like to take it to Suzuki and get them to fix it but I've been told it would be very expensive but I presume I can trust them and their work?

[r-nottz]

If the old alternator is shredding belts and squeeling I expect the bearing is gone and the roller is shaking all over the place.

The newer one that you put on that you said was a higher output might of been overcharging the battery and making all the electrics go funny (a dud battery and a over charged battery are both equally bad)

I would suggest getting another alternator of equal output to the original one fitted, eather a good used one for around £30 or a new one for around £100 from a local motor factor (gsf, eurocarparts etc) at least a new one will come with a garentee.

Also it may be worth checking your battery earth point ( not the negitive termal on the battery end the actual point were it earths to the car) and cleaning the area around it a bad earth can cause funny symptoms also.


A Suzuki dealership will do everything a cheaper garage will do but just charge you a fortune for it.

[Darrell]

If you get any garage to look at it ask them to give the harmonic balancer a good once over. These surprisingly can slip and not run the belt properly causing a flat battery. I expected them to fail quickly and fall apart, but they seem to run for a while before that.
Harmonic balancer is the crankshaft pulley with the rubber insert.

[donkeychomp]

...and not a harmonica