O2 Golf Petrol Breakdown - What could be wrong

[allthedoyles]

Its our daughters car ........A VW Golf Petrol 1.4

The battery light started blinking and car stopped .........The battery sounded dead and started it with jump leads ... drove ok for 5 minutes

Next thing is that there is no accelerator .....so car is ticking over and now no power..

Have towed it to garage , but its going to be Monday before we know whats wrong .

We statred car again at garage with jump leads , and now the accelator is working again .

Does anyone know what could be wrong ?

 

[onq]

Sounds like either the battery or the alternator.
If the alternator goes, the car will run on battery power for a while [mine did].
But without the alternator re-charging it, it will fail [did that too].
If the battery goes, the car will be difficult to start.
It may show signs of not having enough electrical power even when running, because the battery may inhibit the flow of current.
In either case, using the accelerator means more current is drawn by the plugs to ignite the mixture, and the car may develop increasingly poor performance or just stop.
The garage can check if the alternator is charging, and they should check it when the engine is warm too, in case a cracked winding opens up under heat.
The garage can also put the battery on a trickle charger to see if its holding a charge.
Both battery and alternator may be fine, but something else may be amiss.

• the battery earth lead may be loose
• the current regulator may be faulty, or
• you can have a short in the wiring loom somewhere.

Motto: leave it to the professionals.

 

[allthedoyles]

Thanks for the advice above onq.

It was the alternator .........apparently caused by wear and tear .

Cost us €70 in auto-electrical shop to repair alternator and €40 to mechanic to remove and re-fit same .

We actually think we saved money ,( thanks to AAM ) as we were able to tell the mechanic it was the alternator problem , rather than him spending an 'hour or so' looking for the problem !