Alternator dead on 2014 JSW.

First off, I thought these alternators were pretty robust and rarely fail this early from what I've read.

Info: 2014 VW Jetta Sportwagen DSG 32,500mi. (Not a buyback. Has never sat more than a few days at a time.)

It started on my way home, the battery light came on.

After getting home I checked the voltage and there was no charge, showing right around 12V.

The next day I started the car and after a minute idling in the driveway, the battery light came on.

I hooked up VCDS and it confirmed no charge unless I had the RPM above 2000.

Now, a few days later, the battery light stays on no matter what the RPM is.

I checked the alternator pulley and it rotates smoothly counterclockwise and locks up in the clockwise direction. So that seems fine.

Inside the engine bay looks brand new. No leaks or wet spots anywhere. I even moved the fuel filter out of the way to look and the alternator looks brand new. It is the original alternator. So, nothing leaked into it.

I checked all the wiring and nothing appears to be loose or corroded.

I'm stumped!

Do I really need a new alternator or could it be something else I can check before spending so much?

Any help is MUCH appreciated.

I bought a pulley to swap out on the alternator. The only problem is, I couldn't get the original pulley off due to it being so tight. So I put everything back together and went ahead and ordered a new alternator. In the mean time, I took my JSW around the neighborhood and the battery light would stay off first with the RPM above 1800 then almost back home only above 2400 RPM. I still think it's the pulley but a don't want to take a chance on breaking the pulley off the alternator without one on hand. I'll keep this up to date for future reference.

The stealership had to replace my alternator at 60K miles because it was barely keeping the battery charged. I never noticed an issue because it has a brand new battery. The service foreman told me this was the third 2014 TDI that they had to replace the alternator on. Fortunately, they were able to get it covered under the dieselgate warranty because they were replacing my HPFP when they noticed the problem.

CDKJudoka said:

The stealership had to replace my alternator at 60K miles because... .

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I wonder if it was really the alternator or just the pulley needing replacement. Was your battery light on?

I've had cars more than 15 years old with the original alternator. If this is the new trend, it's pathetic. Having to replace an alternator every 5 years is not acceptable.

Earlier I took my JSW out again and anything above 1400 RPM the battery light would stay off. At idle it would stay lit. Still waiting to receive the new alternator.

Alternator pulleys on the Jeep CRDs failed often too and there was usually a chirping sound.

Actually my old 2011 JSW was on its original alternator for almost 300k miles. I would say sitting long period can cause them to fail prematurely due to diesel-gate buyback program.

Now I have an 2014 JSW bought at 27k miles on Late Aug 2018 and now 55k miles and still on original alternator..... so far. She sat a while, 2 years. Only had 5 HPFP failures due to mold in fuel tank. Thats only issue with her so far, now she is CP3 and deleted with CR170 turbo. Has CPO warranty. Hope you have CPO warranty so it will be covered.


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I have only replaced two alternators so far on CJAA engines. One was at 260k miles, the other at 368k miles. So I do not think they are high failure items.

However, the BATTERIES in these cars are higher failure items than earlier VAG products with diesels as well as gasoline fueled VAG products. I suspect this is due to the high underhood temps associated with a DPF regen.

And in many cases, a battery can be "just enough" to start the car, but will be taxing the alternator hard in an effort to try and recharge something that will just not take a full charge.

Add to this that many of these cars have been sitting now, and I know most of them got a new battery, but that doesn't mean that most of them were jump started and driven with a dead battery after sitting to wherever they went to get the fix, etc. which would have placed a hard load on the alternators and may have caused them to fail prematurely.

Oilhammer is spot on! Batteries are short lived. My old JSW went thru 3 batteries in 8 years of ownership. Average 2.5 years of life due to extreme heat in Florida plus starting often as I work as an videophone technician so I visit 3-5 customers daily. So you get the idea.


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calimustang said:

Oilhammer is spot on! Batteries are short lived. My old JSW went thru 3 batteries in 8 years of ownership. Average 2.5 years of life due to extreme heat in Florida plus starting often as I work as an videophone technician so I visit 3-5 customers daily. So you get the idea.


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Funny you say that because looking at my records I replaced the original battery Dec. 11, 2016 just over 2.5 years ago. Only difference is back when the original battery died it showed no signs and no battery light, just wouldn't start the car one morning.

When a battery is replaced what beside the radio and clock needs reset?
My new 2014 JSW @13k miles has what looks like an original battery

So with my ALH Golf, I found that there wasn't anything that quite compared to the quality of the OEM battery (especially for the price).



Is it the same case with the CJAA? I replaced my sportwagens (gold top) battery with an OEM one about 8 months ago because I assumed it was a similar case

The OEM batteries are generally your best bet, yes. All my dubs have the dealer-sourced batteries in them.

Joe Romas said:

When a battery is replaced what beside the radio and clock needs reset?
My new 2014 JSW @13k miles has what looks like an original battery

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One thing that I didn't expect to reset was the trip odometer. I keep track of my fuel mileage and had to go by the total mileage that time. Next time I'll take a quick picture before the disconnect.

In a 2013 I had to replace the battery at 6 months but I had bought it in January and suspect it was sitting on the lot at sometimes -30 with the battery probably low or dead.

vincej said:

In a 2013 I had to replace the battery at 6 months but I had bought it in January and suspect it was sitting on the lot at sometimes -30 with the battery probably low or dead.

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Yep super cold climate or super hot climate, batteries dont survive long. They need to design batteries for extreme climates.


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I did get over 20 years out of a Ford Motorcraft battery. I had it sitting on a piece of half inch plywood in the battery box of a 64 Rambler. It would sit all winter in an unheated garage and I could go out in the spring and start it. Nice and cool is good for it if the battery stays charged. Old cars don't have computers constantly sapping the charge. I think the plywood might have been good for insulating it from the bare metal.

That is indeed a good method. i did the same with 2 of my batteries for both 1989 mustangs. Computers are a headache plus clock constantly running especially in 2009-15 VW TDI’s.


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