Andy Roe

Hi guys,

Has anyone had this happen to them? All of a sudden there was a huge bang, so after stopping, it appears the alternator may have ceased, which in turn caused the cooling fan to shear off and break apart!

Not a great way to start the day but at least I managed to get my son to school and was just about to put the car away in the garage when this happened!

robt964

Holy cr@P !!!!
Its difficult to see in the pictures, but how has the alternator shaft failed? Has it sheared off or fallen out?

Andy Roe

I think it sheared off. Scared the hell out of me!!

robt964

Was it the original alternator do you know?
That dent in the engine cover is a real kick in the nuts :-( but the rest is easily sorted.
Out of curiosity I looked up the cost of a new fan before mine went in for paint as it had a few chucks missing. Gulp...!

Andy Roe

Yeah, the dint was the icing on the cake. I didn't see it at first...

I think type911 have the fan at £300 + VAT. Annoying as my fan was in good condition.... Not sure if it's the original alternator, but I've not replaced it in the 10 years I've had the car, so probably due to be changed anyway!

I was planning to have some rust repaired over the winter, so I guess it's going in a bit early now that this has happened!

A.

Rocket Rob

Ouch! Sorry this happened. I've never seen an alternator fail like that.

Andy Roe

Quick question - The car is in an underground garage. Is it OK to drive the car out without the fan connected - it's about 300m, so not far. I just want to make sure that it won't damage the engine and I'll only do it when the oil is cold etc.

Thanks

robt964

Provided you make sure there is nothing trapped down by the pulley wheels I'm fairly sure that'll be fine. Nothing going to get that hot over 300m. <usual caveats>

Vandit

That's crazy, but not unheard of.

On the 993 forum, a couple of people have had the fan break apart, throw blades through the hood, tear up a/c barrier hoses, bend the crank pulley, etc. It happens since magnesium sucks and fails over time.

For example, **this thread**


The alternator shaft sheering off is another story. I have never seen that happen.

Tearing it down and seeing if the alternator is really seized should be interesting. it's also possible the fan threw a blade first and it just chained reaction from there.

What engine speed (RPMs) were you spinning when this happened?

Andy Roe

Maybe 2K rpm, so not a lot really.

911Jetta

The exact words I was mouthing to myself as I looked at those pictures!

I wasn't thinking kick in the nuts when I saw the engine cover picture, but that's a perfect comment in this situation.

boxsey911

Sorry to see that Andy especially since you decided to keep rather than sell the car. At least by keeping it you didn't have a recent buyer coming back trying to accuse you of selling it with a known fault (which you didn't know of, of course).

Out of interest, were any belts replaced recently prior to it happening?

Andy Roe

Yes, I replaced all 3 belts myself (about 6 months/3000km ago). I made sure that were not too tight etc., but maybe it was something I did. It needs 3 new belts again now though! Either way, it's quite a big failure and the alternator shaft has just completely sheared off which left the fan flying around in the engine bay...!

The mechanic has it now so hopefully it'll be fixed soon!

robt964

I can't imagine you could have done anything wrong that would have lead to the failure of the shaft before anything else!! A good postmortem of the alternator will surely reveal something...

Vandit

Being aware of these types of failures, I'm always afraid of something like this happening while I have the engine bay opened up and I'm working around the running motor (e.g. when checking oil level).