Hi all, just a quick question, driving to melbourne airport last night and the 'check alternator' warning came up followed by the battery light. I kept on driving expecting to suddenly loose power except nothing happened. The warning then came on again another 6-8 times in about 30 mins but again nothing happened,and i still had lights, radio etc. The same thing happened when my mum was driving it at night a couple of weeks ago. I checked the alternator with a multi-meter and i got a reading of 14.2/14.3 which i believe is fine, correct me if i'm wrong. The only thing i can think of is it was very wet on both nights so maybe the belt was slipping, (please don't laugh at me if that is completely impossible). So anyone have any ideas? Any help would be awesome!!!! Cheers, Luke.
check the brushes in the alternator they may be almost worn out. You can just buy the brushes if they are and solder them in yourself much cheaper than a new regulator. I'd also go and have the battery load tested.
Cool, how easy would it be to replace the brushes? And how much would i be looking at for a new regulator from the wreckers? Cheers.
The brushes are soldered into the regulator and if you have a big enough soldering iron you can replace them in a matter of miutes. Remember to disconnect the battery before you take the regulator out of the alternator (no need to remove the alternator fromthe car I think). Regulator you probably won't get from a wrecker they would want to sell the whole alternator i'd say. A new regulator woudl be aroud $50 to $60 whereas the last lot of brushes I changed cost me $10.00
You can buy a Regulator assembly from Repco for VY supercharged or Non Supercharged alternators, around the $70 mark . To remove the old one you have to remove the drive belt from around the alternator pulley &undo the alternator brackets & swing the alternator up over the engine , undo 2 screws (they are tight little buggers, philips head use a socket to get plenty of grip on them.) The assembly can then be jigged out of the alternator housing., Take it with you to Repco to match it up, they are a shelf item at Repco stores normally....
Thanks heaps for the replies guys. What should it look like if the regulator bushes are worn down? Cheers.
Alright thanks for all the help guys, employed my mechanic mates help and just put some new brushes in, so i'll see how i go with it. Cheers, Luke.
How'd you end up going mate as I have a similar problem with my car, however it is getting more and more frequent :s
