Alternator Fault - Battery Not Charging. A6 C7.5

[brycie-bitdi]

Only had the car back a few weeks after it was off the road for months sorting adblue issues. I took the Audi Extended Warranty out after that to cover any other issues for the next year. Unfortunately I only did that on the -7th July and it doesn’t cover any issues for the first 30 days.

Now today I hear a whining noise & a bit of a ‘pop’ and the message ‘Alternator Fault - Battery Not Charging’ comes up. Had to keep going & was luckily was only round the corner from home. But the rest of the drive, it intermittently sounded like the exhaust was dragging along the road under the car. I checked & there’s nothing hanging down.

While the car was originally in at an Audi Indy for the adblue issue, they did report a Crankshaft synchronisation fault. I asked Audi several times about it but they assured me all faults were gone after changing the adblue line & tank.

any likely causes or advice for approaching Audi with this?

2016 Audi A6 C7.5 Avant, 3.0 BiTDI 320ps

[Amigo]

When that happened to me, Alternator Fault with Battery not charging, it was the alternator belt that had snapped, is your belt intact? It's something that can be sorted for well under £100.

[brycie-bitdi]

That gives me hope. I’ve seen the fault warning occurs on a range of models & I was worried it might be the crank pulley. Hopefully just a belt then & nothing worse, fingers crossed.

did you have the same symptoms, with a nasty rattling/clattering sound like you were dragging the exhaust along?

[Amigo]

Mine is the 2.0 Ultra, and the alternator belt is visible if you open the bonnet, towards the front of the car. Don't know about the 3.0 BiTDI.

[Crasher]

A crank/cams sync error on that engine is very concerning, however, the accessory drive belt can fail when the front lower pulley falls off! What is the VIN?

[brycie-bitdi]

The VIN is WAUZZZ4GXGN178291. The pulley falling off doesn’t sound very good either lol. At least to a non-mechanical person like me.

[gareth23]

I've had an Audi with an alternator pulley that fell off but somehow it got wedged and didn’t disappear, turned out the one way clutch in the pulley had seized and the subsequent jerking eventually unscrewed the pulley from the alternator. A local garage fitted a new pulley and refitted the belt as it wasn't very old and in good nick.

Now I think about it the last two cars I've had both needed new clutch pulleys at some point, one seized solid and the other would randomly sitck open so wouldnt drive the alternator. I wonder if good alternators get binned because of this?

[Crasher]

Your car was built 12-04-16 and has the pulley where the bonding fails and the outer ring falls off, part 059 105 251 DA fitted up until 13-09-16 and was already a revised part for the original and since yours was built has been revised again at least three times to 059 105 251 EL which retails at £567.60. It is available aftermarket from Vaico under their number V10-6714


https://digital-assets.tecalliance.services/images/3200/3132ebf26a82f615fedcd39d8c593b5e1b450e0f.jpg?ver=3 .94.0.563280965e

[brycie-bitdi]

Thanks for the information & explanation. I’ll make sure to get prices for the Vaico unit for comparison. Seems like a very common issue then with the number of people having it & the number of revisions.

ill see if Audi will do goodwill again on that basis & after I took the warranty th out 2 weeks ago. Thanks again.

[bluezie]

Have you actually had a look down the front of the engine at the belt and all the pulleys? Everything should be turning smoothly with nothing wobbling around, especially the crank pulley. It'll be very obvious if something has failed enough to allow the alternator to stop charging!

[brycie-bitdi]

I did. After the help given here, I did take a look & I could see the outer ring of the pulley leaning up against the back of the radiator. So it was exactly as Crasher said, the outer part of the pulley had separated from the inner part. New pulley & belt fitted for £440 and it’s running normally again.

Thanks to all for your input. Now on the journey back from Scotland, I’ve had a low oil warning, which is the first time ever in this car. Hopefully not the start of an issue to come. And also need to find some Brembo rear pads as the garage that did the alternator pulley couldn’t get hold of any.

[bluezie]

I did. After the help given here, I did take a look & I could see the outer ring of the pulley leaning up against the back of the radiator. So it was exactly as Crasher said, the outer part of the pulley had separated from the inner part. New pulley & belt fitted for £440 and it’s running normally again.

Thanks to all for your input. Now on the journey back from Scotland, I’ve had a low oil warning, which is the first time ever in this car. Hopefully not the start of an issue to come. And also need to find some Brembo rear pads as the garage that did the alternator pulley couldn’t get hold of any.

I recently had a low oil level warning, and the level shown on the MMI wasn't consistent, it was moving from day to day between low mark and 60%. I changed the sensor when I changed the oil, and from what I drained out, the true level was about 70%.

[brycie-bitdi]

Thanks, I’ll get them to check that. The extended warranty will be active next week & I have a service to claim on my service plan, so I’ll get them to check while they’re doing it. Of course they’ll probably want to charge me £195 for diagnostics if I mention a suspected issue with the oil level sensor lol.

[brycie-bitdi]

I wish my last post was the last one in this saga, but there seems to be one thing after another.

As I mentioned the car asked for oil after the pulley & belt were fitted. Well it asked for oil 3 times over the 2-3 weeks after the pulley was done. Took it back saying they must have done something while it was in & sure enough they said that the driveshaft seal had been damaged while they were trying to remove the seized pulley. Fair enough they fessed up & fixed it FOC. Picked it up today at 5pm & they said the coil light is now on, which they say is an exhaust temp sensor. When I started driving it, it’s in limp mode.

Could the exhaust temp sensor fault have been caused by them fixing the driveshaft seal? I’m quickly losing faith in this garage & if you guys think it’s a coincidence & not caused by the garage, I’ll get it fixed elsewhere. If it’s feasible that they did something to cause this, I’ll be pushing for them to put it right again FOC.

Thanks in advance.

[Crasher]

They would have damaged and then replaced the front crankshaft oil seal which does happen when extracting the pulley but you should notice and deal with it, not have to go back in there. There are five EGT sensors but I can’t visualise how they would damage one, the actual fault code would be helpful. Remember, coincidences can and do happen, you have to trust the garage that they are telling the truth.

[brycie-bitdi]

Yeah I’m trying not to be too cynical as they were upfront about the damaged seal. Just a peculiar thing that a sensor would go wrong while sat in their workshop & not being driven. As you say, coincidences do happen.

Guess I’ll see what they say & take it on the chin. Good to know from a person with knowledge of the model that the locations of the sensors are likely or unlikely to be related to them doing the pulley & seal.

Thanks again for your input.

[Crasher]

It depends on which one of the five EGT sensors it is to get a feeling for the plausibility.

[brycie-bitdi]

Got the car back yesterday afternoon. Apparently in addition to damaging the driveshaft seal, they also put a hole in the dipstick housing/chamber, whatever you call it. I didn’t even think the car had a dipstick. They had the bumper off 3 or 4 times & it took them 4 hours to identify the hole as it wasn’t showing unless the system was under pressure. All fixed now, fingers crossed.