Peugeot 406 (1999 - 2004) - 01 2.0hdi alternator issue

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Fri 24 Oct 2008 15:20
01 2.0hdi alternator issue - Craig2008
When driving home yesterday in wet weather, my battery light illuminated, and a 'battery charge fault' came up on my central LCD display. Along with this, a grinding metal noise was coming from under the bonnet. I opened this and the sound appeared to be eminating from the alternator.

After around 2-3 minutes the noise stopped and all the lights/displays went out.

Is this just that water has got in around the belt and pullies, resulting in a slipping belt? Or is it something more serious?

Any comments would be helpful.

Regards
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Fri 24 Oct 2008 15:38
01 2.0hdi alternator issue - Screwloose

Difficult to be sure without hearing the noise; but the one-way clutch in the alternator pullies often give trouble.

They are available separately; [I used to get mine from LSUK........]
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Fri 24 Oct 2008 15:41
01 2.0hdi alternator issue - 659FBE
Early on in the life of my partner's 106D I had a similar problem with the Valeo A11 alternator - warning light half on, no charge and mechanical noise.

As I used to design alternators, I investigated promptly and found that Valeo had badly wound the stator such that some of the windings were proud of the slots and were not retained by the slot insulator sticks. The inevitable happened by about 50k miles; the rotor claws fouled the protruding winding causing an earth fault on the stator (which put the light on) and an open circuit on one phase.

I did manage to find an enterprising outfit in the Midlands who supplied a replacement stator - obviously hand wound but perfectly OK mechanically and electrically. At 141k miles it's still there doing its job without any further attention. I wonder why they produced them - stators are normally a non-wearing part...

I had originally thought this fault was a complete one-off - I'd never seen it before. Having subsequently examined a few more Valeo machines, I'm not so sure as the stator winding technique is a bit sloppy and there is a good deal of copper in there for the slot size (good for output but difficult to wind).

Take the belt off and see if the machine spins without noise in each direction (there may be a one way drive pulley). If there is any noise - investigate. These machines are very rebuildable but you have to centre the rotor on reassembly for some reason known only to the French.

659.

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