The dreaded "Alternator Workshop" warning...

[lacroupade]

Can't do much in terms of diagnostics as the car is in France and I'm back in the UK for a few weeks but while I was over there, on two occasions recently I got the "Alternator Workshop" warning.....first time was just the centre display message, second time the battery light also came on.....both times was just brief, with attendant beeping, then it vanished and did not re-appear. On both occasions I was accelerating quite hard.

Car is a 100bhp 1.9TDi B5.5 estate.

Can anyone who has actually had this message please advise what their outcome was and an idea of how long I might have mileage-wise until a failure of some sort? Its just that my wife is over there driving the car occasionally (she has a 4x4 there as well) and I don't want her to get stuck in the middle of nowhere....plus the price of spares over there is horrendous.....last trip over I took a complete exhaust system for my 4x4 which at £145 was around 40% of the cost of buying in France.....

Also whats the purpose/location of this alternator clutch I've seen reference to on a couple of threads?

Cheers in advance....