The very good looking alternator from the scrappy on my MK2 Golf turns out to be rubbish. It looks a month or two old, but it's not charging until you're doing about 2000 revs, making driving in traffic an absolute pain. Any ideas? I'm tempted to just send it off for a refurb now - if anyone knows a decent place in the Sheffield or Nottingham areas I'd be please to know.
Alternator woes
Dec 27, 2007
10 Replies
Why not recon it? I assume spares are available. At least you'll know it'll work, and it could be cheaper than buying a refurbished one. Mike.
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Because I've not really got a clue where to start with it.
From sound of it new brushes & regulator pack should cure it.
WTF do I get them from? Is it something a factors would keep in? I'm getting quite tempted to get someone else to do it though :D.
Nope, you can get them on the web, your local bosch franchise should do them or a decent autoelectricians normally charges about £35 fitted & tested.
I see. I've currently got one alternator that worked fine with a broken casing, and another that doesn't work with a good casing. I'm tempted to swap them over but even this seems like an arse ache at the moment. A full blown refurb would at least be guaranteed to work...
Piece of piss then, the reg & brushes are integrated.
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That may well be the way forwards. I was in a bit of a mood to torch the car earlier. You respray a car, fit it with new brakes, etc. etc. etc. and then the bloody alternator starts giving you 7 types of trouble.
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If the old ones good then you just undo the two screws and swap them, you have to spring them in at an angle to compress the brushes & whilst it's out it's a good idea to look & see if rings need cleaning up with a bit of fine sandpaper, but only slightly harder than changing sparkplugs.
I used to goto Lucas in Sheffield, about 15 years ago though. Sure it was them, near the Wicker
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