[John-H]

My battery maybe down on capacity I suspect but the main fault was certainly the alternator as it wasn't charging.

 

[John-H]

It was. They were!

 

[John-H]

It can be very stressful having your alternator fail. It needs to work each journey otherwise you won't have a next one! The fix is not so hard usually it seems as the regulator is often the problem. A multimeter is certainly your friend on these occasions - 14V indicates a working alternator but under 12V and it's going flat.

 

[John-H]

It was a hairy episode but like you say, you make your own luck - when there's a will or enough desperation :wink:

 

[John-H]

Here's a picture. This is with the cover and plate in front of the orange dip stick removed (see my thermostat How To), showing the alternator with plug and output lead detached. You can see there's not much room:

 

[John-H]

Did you get it sorted despite the difficulty?

 

[John-H]

No idea. I'd only trust a genuine Bosch part and not a Chinese copy. You don't want it to fail and have to repeat the job. You might be able to get one from GSF at half the dealer price or TPS is another possibility for genuine items.

 

[John-H]

Well done for fixing it. You've brought it all back to me - very fiddly :roll:

 

[John-H]

The alternator voltage failing shouldn't have had a permanent effect on the oil pressure warning but perhaps you have disturbed the wire that goes to the pressure switch on the oil filter assembly. Check the wire and the switch. I take it that your engine runs Ok and doesn't sound like a world record nail hammering attempt?