Thread: D3 burnt out alternators?

Originally Posted by BDB

Who has had the alternator on their D3 burnout?

I was "luckyish" to experience on an 9 week NT/ Wa trip to have the smoke and smell of the alternator burn out in a Mt isa Car park, as I was doing minor remediation work on the cig lighter plugs I had broken by bad packing.

We missed a booked stay2 at lawn hill

Has anyone else had alternator burn outs? I am convinced we still have power loss issues!

We were lucky to have Lawrance from miners mates auto,
to be on call for RACT /RACQ premium(do not travel without retrieval cover!!!!)

anyway lawrance towed us on Saturday 1 PM and had us mobile afetre sourcing the cause of the electrical fire , by Thursday 10 AM.

Thanks LAWRENCE AT Miners Mate Mt Isa

Brian
ps watch for another thread on ARK PAKs

Mine was awfully smelly, but did not ignite or smoke. I think I got to my alt pretty early before it got worse.

Glad you didn't lose the entire car!

Cheers,
Ben

Mine failed suddenly, no smoke just more and more warning lights cam on until it failed to proceed.
Regulator can fail and cause a direct short stuffing the battery, your battery may not be very well; also make sure they put in the correct replacement.

Rectifiers I think is what fails and causes that burning smell + smoke. Mine did that. Battery light, voltage ~11.5 at idle. Drove for about 30km before calling it quits (don't let it get that far - these are HEAVY cars and not easy to maneouver or stop without power assistance.

Also put the car in NEUTRAL if it dies, not PARK or the stick will not let you shift out of park again and you'll have fun trying to tow it. I think there's a workaround for the park-lock though.

Yes very good advice! The stuck in park mode was quite traumatic, as smoke and flames appeared before , as we had to connect a battery and turn the ignition on for a few seconds to get the gear into neutral and on the tows truck.BDB

Originally Posted by BDB

Yes very good advice! The stuck in park mode was quite traumatic, as smoke and flames appeared before , as we had to connect a battery and turn the ignition on for a few seconds to get the gear into neutral and on the tows truck.BDB

If anyone gets stuck like this again, the shifter can be moved into neutral quite easily. There's a manual interlock release (white tab that you press down) under the trim that surrounds the auto shifter, just need to pop the shifter knob off (pull firmly upwards, taking care not to break your teeth with it when it comes away suddenly) and pull the trim up.