Possible Alternator Problem

[BugCo22]

Returned home from a work trip on Saturday and started car with no probs first time. Later in the day the car struggled to start, sounding like a flat battery but give it sum gas and it started. Today I had to turn ignition on all the way to engine start and give it gas to get started, went on a 30 mile non stop trip, stopped and had to do the same to start. Bought a new battery from Halfords, supposedly charged, fitted and same thing. Went on another 20 mile drive to give chance to charge and still won't start straight away ?? Any ideas other then alternator before I start pulling it apart ?? Thing is, it started straight away first time wen I first got back to car but never since ??

[BugCo22]

Ok an update. Car has been doin it's usual, struggling to start without giving it sum throttle. Anyway went to start it and nothing happened at all ?? No clicking, buzzing nothing. It had juice in battery ad lights !Removed! up on dash. So thort of starter motor, gave it a tap and car started with a struggle. So I'm guessing the starter motor is on way out :-/ so next question is, seeing as I had to tap it to make it work, can I change jus the solenoid or the whole starter motor ??

[iantt]

very common for starter to pack up on mk3 ,

just get a starter motor complete,

when you take it off,check for mettalic dust in the motor, that will be the dual mass flywheel breaking up if you have got dust, then putting a new starter wont last long.

[BugCo22]

Ok cool cheers for that. The pic that's added, is that an actual receipt for the parts ?? I don't have one from the garage for fitting ?? But if they were fitted back in 2011, would it have gona agen already by now ?? The dmf that is.

[BOF]

Is this the car of your sig (mondeo mk3 2.2 tdci ghia x)?

Anyway went to start it and nothing happened at all ?? No clicking, buzzing nothing. It had juice in battery ad lights !Removed! up on dash.

and

Bought a new battery from halfords, supposedly charged, fitted and same thing. Went on another 20 mile drive to give chance to charge and still won't start straight away ??

Pretty sure that the battery won't originally have been fully charged, unless you put it on a charger for, say, 24 hours. Now, would it have been 15% charged or 85% charged? That's a matter of guesswork, but, after it has started the car once, it could have been pretty discharged. Or, not.

To have a slightly better informed guess about whether there is a problem with the alternator, really we could do with some voltages. Before starting and after starting (with no electrics on) and then with, for example the heated windows on and the engine revving a bit. That would give a reasonable idea of whether the alternator is doing any charging and whether it is still managing to charge with some load on.

It had juice in battery ad lights !Removed! up on dash.

If I understand what you are saying, that doesn't really mean much. The battery has to supply about an amp for the dash lights and closer to 300 or 400 to start the engine, so there is a whole load of room for a battery that can only supply 100 amps to succeed at one and fail at the other. The battery might not be fully charged, it could be faulty, or there could easily be a problem with the wiring.

That said, if you do see lots of dust on the starter pinion, that is a very bad sign.