Fuzzbeaner

My C4 is upset that I left the country for 8 months.

After jumping through several hoops and getting 50 miles of run time for each, I had my first major failure.

Driving about a mile to pick up someone at a bus stop, my voltage fell...fell...fell, dipped to 7, car shut down. Had it towed home, charged it up from a wall charger, volts steady at 11.5, regardless of revs. I had been having some alternator volt stability issues before, but not complete failure. Currently my brake light is stuck on, VAG showed the following codes:

18008 Voltage too low
16486, 16690 MAF
00532 ABS Voltage too low

Think replacing my alternator will fix the issues? I'm somewhat out of money...is it a DIY job? I think something unusual is happening - for the car to have enough juice to start and kill a battery in .5 miles is not right.

Thanks for your help folks,
-Jeff

The_Hamster

If that is ok then the brushes/voltage regulator replacement may fix your issue and is much cheaper than replacing the entire alternator.

kday

I have one with fairly worn brushes that came out of my 220k A6. It was working on removal. You can have it for postage if you're desperate, but it's worn enough that I wouldn't put it in my own car. It doesn't look like a real fun job to swap.

CarIsScrewed

have the charging system tested. It is most likely the alternator, also check the belt