Does water damage the alternator?

[greku]

Hi all and happy new year first of all, recently in malta it has been makking a lot of rain thus making the streets flood. this meant that i had to pass from heavy waters alot with my serie 3 33. sometimes when passing through water the battery signeal in the dashboard will switch on then will switch of again when the revs ae increased. probabbly this happened because the alternator got wet. A guy told me that when the alternator and the self-starter get wet means that it has been damged and in a short period they will stop functioning. is it true? if yes? can i do something about it?

[77SudTi]

if theres no immediate electrical fault when you drive through deep water, then I think you will have no problems. Heat from the engine and alternator itself will cause everything to dry out pretty quickly. I dont think it will be likely that it will give up since it has been wet.
For it to have gotten wet I'd say that was some deep water you were driving through! Id be more worried about my engine taking on water than my alternator.

[greku]

well i don't think it happens beacuse it's really deep, but rather because of continous splashing from lots of holes or a long roads which is a bit flooded. the battery light went on also when very large splashes from other vehicles came across my car well hope there will be no damge hehe. Thanks.

[dave.armstrong]

It may just be water going over the bottom pulley and making the drive belt slip. The alternator is very well protected.