|
||
|
14th August 2018, 08:29 | #11 |
Newbie
75 connoisseur se tourer Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Swadlincote
Posts: 14
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Thanks all. It is a good thought to use a battery to get us back to the uk, it wouldn’t get us home though and we’d likely only be recovered to a nearby garage. It didn’t have a chance for us - light came on as we boarded the ferry and being in the middle of the night while raining didn’t help. Died and stranded us in the middle of the damn autoroute! I’d pay up to £400 for the repair but I won’t get a garage take advantage of my family’s situation!
I do have European breakdown cover, thank god, they sorted us out recovery and a taxi to the rental car, which they also paid for! I don’t think they’d tow us home though. Wish they would - I’d happily take a punt at regulator/brushes and if not a recon alternator. Guess it was about time - done almost 200,000 miles, just picked an awful moment! Thanks again. |
14th August 2018, 10:40 | #12 |
Posted a thing or two
Rover 75 Saloon Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Penrith
Posts: 1,336
Thanks: 165
Thanked 303 Times in 241 Posts
|
I have an old (mechanical injector pump) Mitsubishi Diesel. It has a winter pack - 2 x 75ah batteries. I had been driving it locally for 8 months with a duff alternator, recharging at night from the mains. Last summer, I drove from Penrith to Peterborough, for the Japanese Auto extravaganza, and back via Hull and Whitby on the same charge, with overnight camping and other stops. Those batteries, which were far from new and had already been well abused, finally refused to restart the van after a refuelling stop in York. Fortunately, I had taken a fully charged 3rd battery with me off my old dead Audi, which got me home.
On a previous occasion, I set off from Penrith for the south in my Renault, which ran on LPG, knowing my alternator had been intermittently dodgy for months (worn brushes and commutator after 140,000 miles). It got as far as Cheshire, happily spinning along in the outside lane, when the traffic ground to a halt, and my engine cut out - the battery didn't have enough umph to turn the engine more than once, but the car, with electronic ignition, injectors, and the electrics for the LPG, had done 110 miles on 1 charge. So if you bought another battery, and had the existing one fully charged, I think you would have no problem getting home to Nottingham. Perhaps someone on here could offer you a recharging station, somewhere just north of London? |
14th August 2018, 15:29 | #13 | |
This is my second home
MG ZT-T 190 Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Lincolnshire
Posts: 5,493
Thanks: 372
Thanked 647 Times in 534 Posts
|
Quote:
|
|
14th August 2018, 15:36 | #14 |
This is my second home
2007 57 GOLF GTi EDITION 30 DSG Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Newport Shropshire and Coventry.
Posts: 5,144
Thanks: 2,424
Thanked 1,452 Times in 852 Posts
|
Is it worth buying a big strong battery and when you get to near the ferry stay the night and charge the flat one in your room? Then bolt on the new one and you have a spare ready. There must be a member on here who can fix the alternator near Dover?
|
14th August 2018, 15:40 | #15 |
This is my second home
Rover 75 Tourer+ Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Radcliffe on Trent
Posts: 10,718
Thanks: 7,308
Thanked 3,929 Times in 2,051 Posts
|
I know this does not help the matter in hand, it would have helped if you had breakdown cover, Rev |
14th August 2018, 21:14 | #16 |
This is my second home
Rover 75 cdt club + Rover 2.5 KV6 Conni SE Join Date: May 2008
Location: Birmingham
Posts: 11,420
Thanks: 6,587
Thanked 2,262 Times in 1,729 Posts
|
I think he has Jules.
__________________
Great Barr, Birmingham. |
15th August 2018, 06:55 | #17 |
This is my second home
Rover 75 Tourer+ Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Radcliffe on Trent
Posts: 10,718
Thanks: 7,308
Thanked 3,929 Times in 2,051 Posts
|
|
|
|