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

[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!