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[Wayne]

I think i have had enough, after spending over £750 recently getting new cambelt, fanbelt, rocker gaskets, waterpump, door trim and shit loads of other stuff for that amount done on me car
i took my car to ATS and KWIK FIT and to my local village mechanic, they all said the same thing
i need a NEW alternator and battery!
they used them test meter thingys on it
alternator is running too low and the battery is also shagged
another £360 needs to be spent on it, i dont use the bloody thing, it is sat on my drive 4 - 5 days a week as i now cycle to work and i was trying to prolong the low mileage on it so stop it wearing out etc
just use it as a treat now and then
(obviously doing more harm than good)
when i do use it, its sheer luxury with all the gadgets and heated seats, nice and quiet, fast etc etc etc, 29 - 31mpg
it just seems that i keep having to spend money out on it
i was hoping it was just the battery because i havent used it for 2 weeks and i have had to jump start it twice over that period
a brand new alternator, labour and a new battery is £360 at least,
and of course my V6 model had to be the most awkward model where the alternator is at the bottom and hard to get to!  :-/

these damn omegas seem to be nothing but trouble, was quite happy to go and spend how ever much on a new battery only to be hit by the above

im truly pissed off with these cars
there more trouble than they are worth  

if i get the above all done, i have spent £1100 on it in about 7 months, i must be rather stupid!
its surely not even worth that with 60,000 on the clock, its an S Registration November 1998 model, CDX Estate  with a sunroof
the car is in excellent nick, apart from the tiny piece of rust by the top of one rear passenger side door and the cracky drivers door that wont stay open because of the "check strap" problem, cracky annoying noise that it makes  

[Entwood]

I expect you'll think this "even more cost" .. but it is only pennies and will stop at least one problem ..

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1161105965

and

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1152902108

As to alternator ... I'm not going to say you don't have a problem with it ... but change the battery FIRST then have the alternator rechecked. A knackered battery with low internal resistance CAN give totally false readings off the alternator as it struggles to keep up, new battery and you may find the alternator is perfectly OK.

HTH

[Weds]

it just seems that i keep having to spend money out on it
i was hoping it was just the battery because i havent used it for 2 weeks and i have had to jump start it twice over that period
a brand new alternator, labour and a new battery is £360 at least,
and of course my V6 model had to be the most awkward model where the alternator is at the bottom and hard to get to!  :-/

Don't know where your prices are coming from, but an Alternator from Vx is only about £100 and a battery £50 max..

Fittings not too bad, done 2 myself..

[zirk]

If your not using the Car, take the Battery out and put it on slow (trickle) charge for, say ...... a week, Ive had a few battery's come back to life this way, even though they previously failed a drop test at the Spares shop?.

My local Garage charged me 75 notes to fit a second hand Alternater with 3 months warranty.

Chris.

[Wayne]

excellent news maybe?
so i guess its worth me putting a brand new battery on it?
definately worth doing that for £60 and then testing the Alternator after?

when i took it to ATS in Oxford, here are the readings i got from the machine while i stood and watched the guy

ALTERNATOR TEST
TEST-RESULT
RIPPLE OK
REGULATOR VOLTAGE = 13.58 Volts
                                 - TOO LOW-

BATTERY TEST
TEST-RESULT
VOLTAGE = 12.24 Volts
STARTING CAPACITY = 31%
-BATTERY UNSERVICEABLE-

600A



The Above means ZERO to me?

new alternator?

christ, i hope not!! im skint!


Cheers me dears

[Omegatoy]

alternartor is putting out correctly according to that readout!!! a new one may put out 14v but 13.8 is ok!!!

[Andy B]

.....
when i took it to KWIKFIT .......

 :-/ Is there not a grubby back street auto-spark nearby? The best auto-spark near me looks a right dive, but you can't do any better than him - the main dealer will refer you to him when they've run out of ideas.

[Kevin Wood]

Check that the battery terminals are not getting hot. Failure of the crimp where the positive cable connects seems to be common, and that will give the impression of a lower voltage from the alternator.

Also, give the battery a good charge on a mains charger before condemning it. It could have just been run down over a period of time by the above problem.

Kevin

[lee4206]

excellent news maybe?
so i guess its worth me putting a brand new battery on it?
definately worth doing that for £60 and then testing the Alternator after?

when i took it to ATS in Oxford, here are the readings i got from the machine while i stood and watched the guy

ALTERNATOR TEST
TEST-RESULT
RIPPLE OK
REGULATOR VOLTAGE = 13.58 Volts
                                 - TOO LOW-

BATTERY TEST
TEST-RESULT
VOLTAGE = 12.24 Volts
STARTING CAPACITY = 31%
-BATTERY UNSERVICEABLE-

600A



The Above means ZERO to me?

new alternator?

christ, i hope not!! im skint!


Cheers me dears

 According to exide an alternator reading should be between 13.4 volts to 14.8volts   so id put it down to the battery and say the alternators fine.
lee

[Wayne]

Quality!

now, i want this battery for my car, dont give a damm if its up to £100!

where can i get one?

http://global.exide.com/exideGlobalWeb/pdf/tr/gb/Exide_Exteme2_4p%202006%20e.pdf

www.exideuk.co.uk

[Kevin Wood]

I'd just get a GM "GO" battery on TC. Could probably buy two for the price of one of those, tey are known to last pretty well, and I doubt they're much different once the marketing speak has been removed.

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

What ATS, Kwik Fit and your local mechanic have failed on is that its quite clear that the alternator is charging.....

Plus if the cars not being driven its no wonder the battery is flat and its totaly pointless testing a flat battery....similarly a heavily discharged battery will also drag the alternator voltage down as it dumps more power into the battery.


I ahev to say that the exide one you list is VERY OTT for what yu need.

A GM Go is the best compromise and it has a 3 year warranty.

[Wayne]

Decided on this for £85

Varta Silver Dynamic

http://www.varta-automotive.com/eng/content/microsites/microsite.html


more power than normal batteries as it has 750 cranking amps which is way more than a GM one or basic Exide, which means better at decharging and recharging, cold starts, and it stores more power inside when you leave it for longer periods of time.. hence actually starting!
infact it has the highest rating for the fitment of my car, the fitting code is 100 for a battery for an Omega Estate V6

this article is interesting reading

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/210431/car_batteries.html

also comes with 5 year warranty
other batteries including GM come with 3 years, and sometimes 4

[jonathanh]

What ATS, Kwik Fit and your local mechanic have failed on is that its quite clear that the alternator is charging.....

Plus if the cars not being driven its no wonder the battery is flat and its totaly pointless testing a flat battery....similarly a heavily discharged battery will also drag the alternator voltage down as it dumps more power into the battery.


I ahev to say that the exide one you list is VERY OTT for what yu need.

A GM Go is the best compromise and it has a 3 year warranty.

I'm probably going to start a ramble now on batteries but I would go with GM.  I have the original on mine which is now 8 years old.  I use the car once every week or two: nothing more.  Other than that it just sits there with the alarm draining the battery.  It starts first time every time, turns over fine no matter how cold.  I've been expecting the battery to fail for at least a couple of years now and its perfect.  Just get a GM one but you must get it on trade club or you will pay the earth.  Finally don't believe what some of the 'high street' service places tell you:  they are simply trying to sell stuff to you that you don't need.

[Jay w]

Decided on this for £67

Varta Silver Dynamic
http://www.varta-automotive.com/de/content/downloads/silver_dynamic_uk.pdf

more power than normal batteries as it has 520 cranking amps which is more than a GM one or basic Exide, which means better at decharging and recharging etc, infact it has the highest rating for the fitment of my car, the fitting code is 063 for a battery for an Omega

this article is interesting reading

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/210431/car_batteries.html

I would still go for the Vauxhall one and save a few pennies as well.....

The vaux one is designed for the car, i would put a lot of what you have read don to marketing jargon