Alternator Failure

[Old.Tony]

Well mine's shat itself again. Not quite the same as the genuine one though ... I had my genuine alternator replaced with a Jaylec 130A alternator some time back and this one has packed it in.

Oddly enough, I've always seen a flash of the handbrake+battery light every now and again, and just before it failed both lights flashed once ... then they came on solid and the volts dropped to 12.3, and quickly to 12.2V. We were on our way home, so I pulled over, checked the connections and decided (since everything looked ok) that it's either brushes or faulty circuit and I'd get it home as quickly as I could.

Having done so (and arriving with the battery at 12.0V and sneaking down to 11.9V under brakes) I immediately put my (fairly new) battery onto charge (C-Tek 7A) and went and grabbed my old alternator (mentioned here). Looking at it from the point of view of fitting it to my car again, I discovered that the shaft was actually worn way too much for it to be used so it's going to go in the bin.

The original was a 23100 EB31A and I've found an aftermarket replacement (150A too) here that is supposed to be a replacement for it.

My question is: has anyone else had any experience with Jaylec, and with the one I'm looking at?

Does anyone have any recommendations?

What about the odd handbrake+battery light? Have I mistakenly diagnosed the fault as a failing alternator?

Without any advice to the contrary, I'll buy the one I linked to on Monday unless I read elsewhere that it's not up to the task and I find something better.

 

[Maccad40]

Your definatley not having much luck with alternators. Mine also packed it in about a yr ago . at about 140k km . But mine the bearing was on it's way out and i couldn't get it off so i chucked it. I bought a trump auto one off ebay 130 amp and wasn't real deer and had a 5 yr warranty. so thought i can't go wrong and I've now done another 25k km and still going well running a duel battery set up with a engel that lives on the back.

Also you sounded excited when you said 150amp. but where the alternator is connected to the battery it acyually runs through a 100amp fuse on the positive terminal.

good luck with it

 

[Old.Tony]

My manual shows a 140A fuse between alternator and battery, and 100A out to everything else. I might just see if I can get a 160A fuse for the primary.

Although, when the engine's running, power is shared around, so some of the amperage will go to the battery and some will go through the 100A fuse to run the car. I also have the tub (directly connected to the battery via 40A fuse), the caravan (40A fuse) and electric brakes (40A fuse). Looking at the actual consumption figures is smarter - I might only squeeze 5A into the tub, about 20A to the caravan, 13A under full braking load to the brakes and given the performance yesterday, the car itself can't be using more than about 10A when running (ECU, injectors, BCM).

So, not-towing power consumption is going to be spread between 10A -> ECU etc, 5A -> tub and balance -> battery. I'm going to be very close to the fuse's limit. Lucky I carry a spare!

It's also not going to develop 150A until it's near full revs and I don't think I've ever had my engine rev that high, but you never know. Thanks for the heads up - I do think I'll look for a higher grade fuse.