How far do you think you could drive in a TDi with no alternator?

tomstickland

Curious as to how far you think you could get with the alternator not functioning.

Would ECU give up when battery voltage dipped?
How long would that take?

mikey72

I've driven my petrol for about 3 hours or 100miles with no alternator, and with a fair amount of starting, and it's still good.
On a diesel it'll depend more on how many times you start it, as the glow plugs will kill it.

Outpost

You could probably cruise down the motorway all day long in it.

HiTo

Old school diesel all day, modern common rail alot less

Gloomendoom

Too many variables. The type of driving, how loud the radio is turned up and even the time of day would affect the distance.

patman99

Diesels do not require a spark, so once running, they will keep going until they run out of fuel.
Petrol engines do need a spark, so will run until the battery runs flat.

geordieracer

1 million miles

eddddy

The alternator on a friend's Zafira TDi failed a few weeks ago. She had to stop when the electronic power steering stopped working.

HiTo

patman99 wrote: »

Diesels do not require a spark, so once running, they will keep going until they run out of fuel.
Petrol engines do need a spark, so will run until the battery runs flat.

Your are a bit behind the times, how do you power 80V injectors, ecu and pump in the tank?

vikingaero

I had a drive belt failure at night in Scotland at night. It was before widespread mobile coverage. It took about 30 minutes driving to get to a phone box and by then my headlights were no more powerful than faint sidelights.

jaydeeuk1

If its as unreliable as the mother in laws grande espace, then even with an alternator it wouldn't get very far.