Dranoel4a 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Hey everyone, i'm at a bit of a loss as to what might be causing this problem, so any tips/help would be greatly appreciated i was driving home from uni a couple of weeks ago and suddenly there was a strong smell of burning plastic :S the car was still working fine though and i got home without a problem. later in the evening, i went to pick up the girlfriend from work and there was a whineing noise coming from the alternator. i figured... well that's a bugger i guess i need a new one. i took it in to a local company who have "repaired" it and then bench tested it, so it was supposedly working fine. they said that the rectifiers were blown from excessive load. I charged the battery, re-fitted the alternator, and the car was running fine but then a couple of days ago (after driving it round for 2 days) it gave out on me at the supermarket and i ended up having to get recovered back home :(. ive taken the alternator back in to the same company today and they think it's the same thing again. so i guess my question is, does anyone know of anything that could break on the 'rado that would cause this to keep happening, I haven't noticed anything electrical that's recently stopped working, and aside for its ne taste for alternators, i can't see/hear/smell/etc anything that's different. my initial thought was that it could have been a dodgy earth or something shorting out the battery but if that were the case then surely the battery would go flat if the car was left to it's own devices, and it seems to be holding its charge.. all very confusing any help anyone can provide would be massively appreciated. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites