alternator advice please

emiff6

My Peugeot 207vti needs a new alternator. The garage quoted me a price of over £1000! Why is it so costly? (Complete car dummie here)

worried_jim

Don't panic!

have a look here-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/reconditioned-alternators

buy a recondition one and take it to an independent garage to get the whole the job done for less than £1000. (may get change out of £200).

tykesi

Why is it so costly?

Isn't that a questions for the garage? Was it Peugeot or an independent?

emiff6

Peugeot garage. At first they said it would be round about the £300 mark, but when they took it out to change, said it needed a different one - with higher voltage?

colino

There does appear to be an unusual vti alternator that is considerably more than the run of the mill on the parts list, by about £80. Take the car to a local, friendly independent garage and get their quote. The dealer may well have been lax in diagnosing the fault too if all he wants is a four figure result for replacing a common part.

arcon5

Tell them to put your car back together and take it elsewhere!!!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

what year and engine if its the E-HDI and has stop start that's why its such a higher price it has the odd ball alternator.

Hintza

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-C3-PICASSO-1-4-VTI-1-6-ALTERNATOR-NEW-OE-A2967-/310673218350?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3APeugeot%7CModel%3A207&hash=item4855911b2e

Hintza

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-C3-PICASSO-1-4-VTI-1-6-ALTERNATOR-NEW-OE-A2967-/310673218350?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3APeugeot%7CModel%3A207&hash=item4855911b2e

I would also pop your reg into Europarts website.

Netwizard

try the usual carparts4less.co.uk / gsfcarparts.com

Peugeot owners club forums / ebay etc.

Joe_Horner

What it probably needs is a new set of brushes - that's by far the biggest cause of alternator failure unless there's been accidental damage. Slip rings should last for at least a couple of brush sets, bearings are usually good for several 100k miles, and windings / regulators / diodes very rarely fail at all if they outlast the guarantee period.

They generally cost about a fiver and take 15 minutes or so to fit on the Valeo alternators that Peugeot normally use because they're specifically designed to be easy to repair. You can even do them without removing the alternator from the car if you're a bit of a contortionist!

The sad thing is that, in today's "plug it in and swap out parts" world, there are very few garages out there now who even realise that's a possibility, let alone would be willing to do it