Thread: Causes of oil in td5 alternator?

Hi there,

Was originally going to title this "The first solar powered D2?" because that's how we travelled home to Brisbane recently after the alternator in MrC chucked in the towel.

But, after pulling the alternator out and taking it to get fixed we were told that the damage was caused by engine oil getting into the unit and ruining the regulator, slip ring(s?), and also destroying the brushes - basically everything except the coils which fortunately was still a complete circuit.

So what caused the oil leak? We have a dry(ish) engine bay and there was only dust on the alternator when I pulled it out so I can only think that this was caused by some problem in the past.

Could it have been that injector loom/oil leak thing (since rectified) or perhaps a spill during an oil change? I guess we'll never know but it sure as heck shortened the life of our alternator - just under 105k on the clock. The alternator is a Nippon Denso and these are apparently pretty reliable - just not oil proof.

I'd be keen to hear of any other experiences in this regard so as to perhaps know what to look for in the future.

Now to the solar story...

It all unfolded just after 3pm on a Friday arvo as we were heading back home from Sydney via the "scenic route". We'd travelled the Bells line of road and stopped for 2nd breakfast at Mt Tomah botanic gardens, then a quick look around Lithgow followed by a lap of Mt Panorama. A great pub lunch was devoured at Orange followed by a quick snow fight up the top of Mt Canobolas.

Heading from Orange to Dubbo, the alternator light came on just as we were leaving Molong. We were refused service by local NRMA in Wellington - told us that they don't touch Land Rovers and to try elsewhere (this left us quite gob-smacked given we're RACQ members). So we drove on to Dubbo wondering how far we'd get (hadn't occured to me to use 2nd battery yet). En-route we phoned the Dubbo LR dealer and received a similar response - "Nope - can't have a look at it until Wednesday and we close at 4.30).

Now I come from this area of NSW having grown up in Parkes and to be frank, this was just not the way things are done out in the country. Maybe they were all peeved about some recent footy game or something but I was a tad ashamed of this apparent attitude too.

Anyway, we eventually found a really great auto electrician in Dubbo - Robbie Cook Auto Electrical, 1 River Tce, Dubbo. After much discussion late in the day a plan was hatched. We bought a battery charger from him to top up the main battery during the overnight stays at Dubbo and then at Goondiwindi.

On the road we had the solar panel on the roof charging the 2nd battery which we'd switched in to the main battery to keep all the electrics going. This arrangement lasted us all the way home from Dubbo to Brisbane. No radio, lights, or A/C and minimal use of everything as we'd no way of measuring power consumption whilst under way. Very grateful for the good weather as I reckon we'd've been cactus if it rained and had to use the wipers as well.

As a side note, without the 2nd battery in the mix we only got about 4 hours worth of travel out of Dubbo before the main battery ran out of juice. This was indicated by the "M" & "S" dash lights coming on initially followed by what looked like the 3 amigos. Switched the 2nd battery in and that got us going again.

So that's the story of the solar powered Land Rover. Was it a first? Dunno but it worked very well and got us home. All in all it was a great trip too and we're planning to return south and explore the area east of Orange to the mountains some more.

Cheers
Peter

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

and this confirms what we've all "thought" about the M & S lights

What? Hook up Main & Second batteries?