Technical Marea 1.6 Alternator

[FirstInAtTeatime]

I own a 2000 model marea weekend and I would like to warn other owners of a recent problem that i experienced.
On the 5th of Jan 06 My battery warning light came on whilst driving the 20 mile journey to my workplace.
Thinking it would have been the battery itself due to the age of the car, I went out at lunchtime and purchased and fitted a new calcium battery.
When i got back to my workplace the battery light was still on so this would have made it an alternator problem.
What I did not expect was when I parked the car there was smoke coming from the bonnet.
I lifted the bonnet and saw that the alternator was on fire, as I was back at work I ran to our kitchen adjacent to the car park and got a bucket of water.
I put 3 buckets over it to make sure it was out and disconnected the battery earth terminal.
My car was fitted with the Bosch 90 amp alternator common with the air conditioned model marea.
So this is a warning to others hoping that if your battery light does come on for you to be very careful as I got a fright.

 

[b1gduk]

Thanks for that.

Here is hoping that the JTD models have a different alternator. But then occasionally cars do set alight so perhaps you were just extremely unfortunate.

People always blame things on Fiats , in my limited experience , its always Bosch components that fail . Darn dodgy German Engineering

Hope you are able to get this sorted, maybe ask Bosch directly why you alternator caught fire , maybe they will be more sympathetic than Fiat

Good luck.