Hey all,

Driving down the highway today and the alternator belt tensioner pulley decided it had better places to be and fell off, it went and hid in the bushes and I couldn't find it. Car could still start so I took the belt off and drove to a 24 hour servo where it's currently having a sleepover.

Does anyone know how far (in terms of distance or time) I'll get running on battery alone? Assuming no headlights, radio, wipers etc. There is one mechanic about 15km away, a few more 40kms away which more closely resembles civilisation.

Cheers.

No idea mate. Best bet would be to chill at the servo you're at and get the RAA to tow it. Or even ask for a bit of help from the locals? See if you can find a belt locally and do some stuff bush mechanic style?

Got a lift home already. The belt is fine, just gonna get a new tensioner pulley kit from Mitsubishi tomorrow and then get it installed at nearest mechanic, just kinda wondering how far I can push my luck driving on the battery alone if anyone has experience doing that.

For future reference, just drove the fagna 60kms in 45 minutes with no alternator belt with no trouble, and it still started at the end of the trip, battery was still 12.8V.

Full charged battery can take you quite far. My old car took me about 450ks on a highway when it finally died, then i realized that the snapping sound i heard was the alternator belt.... Lucky i was only few ks way from closest mechanic....