ALTERNATORS always seem to fail at the most inconvenient moment. A very long time ago I was on my way back to east Lincolnshire from a trip to the Lake District in an old Golf GTI. It was early afternoon, mid-winter and starting to rain. Somewhere near Catterick on the A1 the charge warning light came on. I pulled over and checked that the drive belt was still intact, wiggled some connectors and, as a last resort, bashed the alternator body a few times with a jack handle. None of this made any difference.
Being young, foolish and poor I had no breakdown cover and no money to pay for a recovery truck. I could not abandon the Golf as it belonged to my mother. All I could do was switch off all non-essential electrics and drive on, hoping that there was enough power in the battery to get me home. I discovered that if I drove fast enough the airflow would keep the windscreen mostly clear of rain and that, once it got dark, I only needed to switch on the headlights if there was a car coming the other way. I arrived home feeling as though I had aged about 20 years: I would not care to try the same thing now. As I said, I was young and foolish (and I also had rather better night vision at the age of 20 than I do now).
Since then I have had maybe half a dozen alternator failures, including one on a One Ten V8 where the alternator seized solid and caught fire. An alternator very seldom gives any warning of its impending demise. Sometimes the bearings will start rumbling, or the warning light will be a little slower than usual
