Alternator grenaded

[Golf Houso]

I think the Alternator on my mum's 20V turbo 2000 B5 passat has died. Not entirely sure to be honest atm, are there any ways to check that its working? Also how much would it cost to replace... its gonna get changed anyway but knowing b4 hand wouldn't be bad :).

cheers guys.

[Jmac]

What makes you thinks its dead mate??? Use a multimeter and check if you are getting from 13.6 to 13.9 vlts at 2000rpm, if not you have an issue. Is the red light on in your dash???? You can have these reconditioned mate unless you have a source for a secondy.

[Sleepy]

x2 If the alternator isn't working, Im pretty sure you get a light on your instrument cluster...What exactly is happening??

[Golf Houso]

the voltage was at 10.2 volts, my dad checked that, thats what he's saying anyway. I think the battery's just dead to be honest, got the car 20 months ago and god knows when the battery was changed before anyway. My dad says the car can run for a few hours on a battery, but I think thats BS, not more than an hour in my opinion, correct me If i'm wrong please.

[Jarred]

first of all check the batteries water level. fill it up with distilled water only if need be. Get it charged up if it's too low to start. If it does start, fire her up and then give it a few mins. Check the reading on the battery now. It should read above 12 Volts, more like 13-14volts - this would indicated the alternator still works, to some degreee. If the voltage is jumping around lots, there may be an issue with the alt.

Don't be so quick to assume things are broken. Check the basics first as they are much cheaper and often lead to solutions!

[Golf Houso]

Well the alternator voltage regulator was gone, cost $350 to fix. Not cheap, I went against replacing the whole alternator since the car has done so few k's i.e 69,000 and its 7.5 years old. Why pull an alternator from a car that has done 150k anyway... too much risk, not worth the money.

Maybe if I had a mk2 I'd consider it j: