Urgent help needed - Overseas Breakdown (France)

[Turbo_tob]

Hi,

Hoping someone could offer some help/advice here! We are in France on holiday in our trusty old 75cdt. The alternator has failed and the car is now stranded near Calais where a garage has quoted us 640 euros for a replacement!!! The car is currently left with them while we have a rental down in desneylanf, does anyone know of a reputable garage in the Calais area we could recover the car to as the car is simply not worth the alternator quote!

Thanks so much in advance.

Regards

Toby

[bl52krz]

Just an idea. If it is in Calais, are you returning by shuttle or ferry?If you are returning by shuttle, there is a BMW dealer selling and servicing mini’s and bmw ‘s five minutes from the shuttle, around 15/20 minutes from the ferry. There is an Ibis hotel right opposite the BMW’s dealer where we stay. (A) you could try a price for an alternator from them. (B) At the price of the alternator you have quoted, you could buy a battery fully charged and easily get from Calais to the shuttle/ ferry. Or buy two, still cheaper than the price of the alternator. If you want to find the BMW/ Ibis hotel,the name of the hotel is ‘ Ibis Tunnel sous la Manche. If you want anymore info, give me a message..

[operamagorum]

This may seem a bit naive, but do you have European breakdown/recovery. If so, problem sorted.

[stocktake]

buy a battery/s and a battery charger to get you back to the uk

[MSS]

Originally Posted by operamagorum

This may seem a bit naive, but do you have European breakdown/recovery. If so, problem sorted.

Not quite - the recovery T&C's usually state that the value of the car has to be greater than the cost of recovering it. That is unlikely to be the case here given the OP's statement about the car being wroth less than 640 euros.

I would go with the above suggestion of buying couple of fully charged batteries to repatriate the car.

[Number 6]

Originally Posted by mss

Not quite - the recovery T&C's usually state that the value of the car has to be greater than the cost of recovering it. That is unlikely to be the case here given the OP's statement about the car being wroth less than 640 euros.

I would go with the above suggestion of buying couple of fully charged batteries to repatriate the car.

After my Alternator ceased to function I drove 70 miles on the battery alone.

It was in the day light and did not use any electrics ..

[John Armstrong]

My Alternator went about 50 miles from home, in the evening and I used the side lights for the last 10 miles - keeping away from using the brakes. Made it... - so take it back to the UK as previously suggested.
JOhn

[sewerman]

There's a good chance it's the regulator that's gone not the entire alternator , if you want to you can remove it and replace the brushes for about £3.00 and you'd need a good soldering iron or buy a new regulator about £30 both a diy job if a bit fiddly . Few threads about it on here

As others have said get a couple of batteries to get to the UK and get recovered home when your here

Scott
Oh and when mine went got about 80 miles on the battery alone nursing the electric usage also if you reved it to about 5000rpm the light would go out this worked for a few days too !

Sent from my SM-T530 using Tapatalk

[75c]

I got in excess of fifty miles on a fully charged battery with a dead alternator too.


It's easily the best option.

[genpk]

Not sure of the distance from where you are to uk mainland but as posters say, buy a spare battery and it should get you back to the uk in daylight.
Re the alternator replacement, plenty of recon ones about over your way.
I did find on my alternator even when i replaced the brushes / regulator it still wouldnt charge as the slip ring was to worn.
Ended up getting a new one from Rimmer Bros which was a 120 amp one.
Cost about $350 aud delivered to Australia.