02-15-2005, 11:24 PM
Not that I recommend driving without the alternator unless absolutely necessary, but the topic has generated a bit of discussion recently, so I wanted to share my experience. The bearing on my AC compressor that the wheel that's driven by the belt rides on (sorry about the horrible sentence, but I can't come up with a better way to say it) recently went out, causing my belt to either work its way off or snap. Since this belt also drives the alternator, it's also obviously nonfunctional. An outstanding wrecker (I hate that word) towed me home, without putting a scratch on the car.
There's a shop I trust that's six miles from my house, so rather than push my luck with another tow, I decided to try charging the battery overnight, leaving work a little early to assure that I wouldn't be needing the headlights, and driving the car to the shop. Well, it made it with no detectable problems. The trip took about 15 minutes, in moderate traffic. I have no way of knowing how much farther it could have gone, but I would guess it could go a total of 10-15 miles without the alternator. Again, I wouldn't recommend this, but I thought it would be an interesting data point.
Andy N
There's a shop I trust that's six miles from my house, so rather than push my luck with another tow, I decided to try charging the battery overnight, leaving work a little early to assure that I wouldn't be needing the headlights, and driving the car to the shop. Well, it made it with no detectable problems. The trip took about 15 minutes, in moderate traffic. I have no way of knowing how much farther it could have gone, but I would guess it could go a total of 10-15 miles without the alternator. Again, I wouldn't recommend this, but I thought it would be an interesting data point.
Andy N
