I hope you folks can help as your last resort before handing over lots of cash to my local ford dealer (who is not very good by other accounts)
I have now had 5 alternators in 18 months. My local mechanic (who is a star and very honest / reliable) is at a total loss to as why my car is eating these things. He has managed to get 3 of them on a warranty as faulty units (which he thinks they are not faulty when fitted). We have looked at earthing problems and discounted battery (new one) and are now looking at the "smart charge" system and ECU fault, even though ECU reader has indicated no faults.
The things die in the same way, battery light comes on, battery puts out 12ish vaults under load and refuses to increase to any more than 12.4 vaults. Once my mechanic said it looked like there was fuel in the alternator but this was a one off (possible fuel leak from pump?)
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Dave.
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"Discounted battery".Is it a genuine "Silver Calcium" one? Smart alternators MUST be fitted with this type of battery.A genuine Ford alternator comes with a twelve month warranty.
Edited by jc2 on 14/12/2009 at 10:12
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JC2 is spot on. i would suspect the battery & experienced this with a customer witha Rover 75d that had 3 xpart Alternators fitted, then he changed the battery & no more alternators. there was a fulty bridge on one of the cells in the battery.
You need to be very carefull of batteries from a well know tyre & exhaust company as they have post convertors fitted on their batteries & as the post terminal corrodes internally they cause alternators & ABS faults galore caused by high resistance
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I think this needs to be taken to a local auto-electrician, a specialist who will probably have had previous experience of this sort of thing.
Sorry I can't offer any practical advice. Are the alternators that have been fitted quality units, i.e. genuine Ford or Lucas B90 (or whatever the equivalant of Lucas B90 is these days!)? Also, are you sure that the correct units have been fitted?
Are these alternators "Reconditioned"? Some "Reconditioned" alternators are just straight out of the scrap-yard, cleaned up and given a coat of black paint! If this is the case then you could well get through 5 units in 18 months.
Has any examination of the failed alternators been carried out so as to determine the cause of failure? If it hasn't then, will little else to go one, I would think this should be done.
Edit. What jc2 has said, top man!
Edited by Galaxy on 14/12/2009 at 10:23
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Exactly what battery is fitted, make, part number and type. Regards Peter
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Ill get back to you all with the battery serial number and type as soon as the car come back from garage. My mechanic is an auto electrician ( 2 blokes small garage 2 ramps who i was introduced to for an alarm fault many years ago, the old type who greases doors and changes bulbs and doesn't bother to put it on the bill) by trade who is confused by this.
The units that have been fitted are (in order): Recon, Ford, New but not ford, new bt not ford.
The battery was replaced about the same time the first (original ) unit failed (the one before all the problems) so this does tie in to the start of it all. It was replaced by edit kwik fit (no names on this forum i have been told). Giving clues also applies, but you've not named and shamed them so no need to omit or give clues to their name
Ill look into this later and post serial numbers as soon as i can
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 14/12/2009 at 12:42
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UPDATE: My battery is NOT a silver calcium one! Just going to order one and fit it. Will get the part number for the current one as soon as i can. Thanks folks, will let you know how this pans out.
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I suspected that the battery was from where you discribed! I think you will find that your fixed now.
Out of interest do you know whether the alternators where overheating ? burnt shelac ? & did they whine ? if so chances are the battery had a poor coupling ! get what you pay for!
Inj doc
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As I have already said,smart charging systems must have silver calcium batteries fitted but silver calcium can also be used with any type of charging system,even three brush dynamos.Some manufacturers no longer make the older types of battery.
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Only one of them smoked, it actually cooked itself as i was driving along, nice white smoke and a plastic smell!
It now has a new (again) alternator, this is try 5 and the suppliers are giving me this one "with no warranty what so ever, only a few days as it GOT to be a car fault",( only had ot pay for 1 out of 5 so no complaints from me) which is fair enough really as my mechanic is not charging me for replacing these (on a labour claim, putting the bill through the suppliers ).
THanks ever so much for your help and now another mechanic is going to start using this site to help him out.
Oh, the supplier of all these alternators has supplied the battery saying to my mechanic "yeah, this may sort it as i have had a few people needing these for focus' " great, if only he would have suggested this 3 alternators ago!
Ill repost in a months time to tell you al how its doing, and then again after 3 months! THanks again, Dave.
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Well, a month down the line and alternator still works!
Thing is that i have to keep the car over 1200 revs for the first 15 mins of the first trip of the day or battery lights comes on, quick turn off / on and light goes out and is fine. no idea why i have just learnt to live with it!
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