BIGJakes (ims?) dilemma

[Jake Raby]

Your welcome.

how often does an alternator seize ? I have never seen this happen before ....

See 100+ M96 powered cars a year and you'll see it often. In the past year I have probably made this call 7-8 times and been right every time.

Guess how I diagnosed this with such little information... It wasn't luck!

[Fintro11]

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

Your welcome.



See 100+ M96 powered cars a year and you'll see it often. In the past year I have probably made this call 7-8 times and been right every time.

Guess how I diagnosed this with such little information... It wasn't luck!

Good to know, I never realized the 986 has a clutch on the alternator. Every one is quick to blame the ims, now that I think of it even the video I found sounds like a serpentine belt flapping around. I wonder how many mechanics have taken advantage of this.

[Coffinhunter]

So either BIG Jake is really happy right now, or a little down as he already had eyes on his next Boxster!

Glad to hear it was an easy fix.

[Jake Raby]

that these alternators have a clutch

Not all of them do. The units with a spray clutch seize only in the clockwise direction, the engine can still be rotated counter clockwise when these fail.

I've had cars shipped to me from 2000 miles away that were supposedly failed, and this was all that was wrong with them. I told one guy to remove the belt and try to start the engine; but, he was so convinced that it was blown up that he just sent the car anyway.

I fixed it in 45 minutes and called to tell him that he could save his 20K. he was so blown away that he spent 10K on performance and preventatives while the car was with us.

This failure fools lots of people. I bought a core engine for 500 bucks once, and all that was wrong with it was a failed alternator.