Thread: Possibly useful info for 300 tdi owners

Greetings Aulrovians!

I recently bought a 300 tdi 110 Station Wagon (a 1999 compliance plate, I assume 1998 manufacture) which I'm very happy with. I was recently driving it North of Townsville when the pulley on the alternator parted company with the alternator damaging the 'serpentine belt at the same time. We had spare belts with us, but not a spare alternator or pulley, so initially we thought we would need to wait by the road while an alternator was bought up from Townsville. However close inspection of the air conditioner belt showed that while it was narrower than the serpentine belt, the 'grooves' in the belt were identical. Moreover it was short enough to go around everything the serpentine belt went around except the alternator. This meant that we could fix the problem (albeit without an alternator) and drive home.

I raise this as it means that in the event that a 300 tdi user (in a Defender at least) has an alternator fail in a way that means they need to by pass the alternator, they can just use as a lash-up the air conditioner belt (either a spare or the one on the air con) to limp home. Obviously it is not an ideal long term solution (for example the power steering suffers, and presumably the belt spins on hard lock) but we drove 150 km home without any problems and then fitted a new alternator.

Best Wishes

Thanks!

You are correct - the failure was caused by a bearing failure. Alas I was in a rush to get going so grabbed a spare Defender Alternator and threw it on - rather than take your Disco advice - will bear it in mind when the new on fails!! Ironically we had a kit of alternator bearings with us, but could not fit them as the thread holding the pulley onto the alternator was stripped. {Are Landrover owners the only people who drive around the countryside with 40-50kg of spares on board?? Mark you the upside is that after 35+ years of Landrover ownership I've never failed to get home!!}

Best Wishes from a hot and steamy Townsville. We need rain!!