105 in Jersey and my Saturday adventure (Alternator content - I think)

[Ricky Bobby]

Cross posting this from FB, what a day:

Fuck me running. Literally. Listen to this story.

Anyone want to take bets of my Over/Under on my final tab at BMW on Monday?

Driving down the parkway to take wife shopping after I stopped at my local gun shop to pick out my birthday present. We are 2 miles from the exit, it's 102 degrees out. Battery light flashing very slowly on my dash, about once every 5 seconds. Get off the exit, at 11.5v running. Stop and fill up for gas and turn on OBC test 9 again, down to 10.8v and I found a Pep Boys 4 miles away.

Make it to Pep Boys, down to 9v - guy says it would be a few hours to even test it (although I'm positive it's alternator) - I pull up google maps.

Success! BMW dealer is 5 miles down the road. Call them up - sure they can see it Monday and service it but no loaners, they are booked till Wednesday.

I go to start - dead as a door nail. Between calling a tow and bitching BMW to get me a fucking rental car (I'm about 45 mins from home) I decide to try again. She starts, but hesitantly.

I tell my wife to get her hot ass in the car and we boogie down the road - praying, windows down AC off - and running red lights (when my car is dying fuck the po po's lol) - 8.6v 😳😳😳

We turn on the last road - .9 miles away and she's chugging on 3 cylinders. I pulled into a parking lot in a space just as it died and the wheel got heavy. The tow guy was around the corner, tossed his battery pack on, closed my hood and followed me as I limped the last mile to BMW.

Got a rental thank god for 2 days from them (all rental shops were closed by 1 pm) - and he'll call me Monday. Says the 140A alternator is in stock if that's what it is, I told him I have air suspension so I doubt highly that I have a 90A. Battery was replaced in December with an AGM I hope I didn't fry it.

Made it home, and temporary registration on the rental so no license plates. Yeah we fuckin blew through EZ Pass bc we could.

I better lube my ass up because I'm gearing up for a 1k+ tab by Monday evening.

I guess I shouldn't be mad, 13.5 years out of the original alternator - and it could have been worse. I could have gotten stuck on the Garden State Parkway on a Saturday afternoon in the summer (my NY/NJ peeps know what I mean) -

Surprisingly the wife is not too mad. She did tell me she took a Xanax when we broke down though because the anxiety of being stranded in 105 degree heat was too much 😂😂

There's my Summer Saturday story - wish me luck getting the X back in top shape - truth be told I'm glad Pep Girls didn't touch it, not sure if those oil jockeys would even do it right or not put a cheap Cheena part on.

[g300d]

Holy shit man, what a day!

I feel you man...been there, done that, have the T-shirts and all. My 3.0's alternator literally went up in smoke one evening early in my ownership. The 4.6 had a newly replaced one when I got it so not yet for that one.

Oh, and with the wife, haha, damn, I can relate to that too! We were on a trip for work in an E46 when 30mins away from the place, we stalled. Started it up, ran for maybe a mile then stalled again. No more start, dead battery. Apparently wasnt charging but no battery light so didnt know. No tow available, way out in the sticks. She starts panicking and nagging while I am thinking of how to solve this. Then it starts pouring rain lol!

Finally called the jobsite and had them bring a couple of the big group 4D N120 12v batteries from the heavy equipment there, and some battery cables, terminals, and electrical tape.

Popped the trunk, disconnected the car battery terminals, put the big ass battery in the trunk, jury rigged some extensions to it, and taped it up so it wouldnt short on anything...all in the pouring rain. Thank god E46 batteries are in the trunk, if they were under the hood we'd be SOL.

So the car starts and we run for it in the pouring rain, windows ajar for air, no wipers to conserve electricity, and windows fogging up from the weather!

We made it to the site eventually. Could've used some Xanax on that trip!

Anyway, sorry to ramble, I was so relating to your story so much that it brought back a lot of memories lol!

Hopefully it's just the alternator and the dealer doesnt ream you too badly.

Oh, and Happy Birthday man! I remember you were still deciding on what to get last I saw in the other thread, what did you end up choosing?

[mam4.6]

Lol, sucks, man... Hate to hear when something like that happens, but, as you said, things could've been worse! Good luck getting it fixed...


Wonder if I should change mine preventatively? Hhmmmmm... We're gearing up for a couple trips this summer yet...

[mrcarter20]

Oh man! Glad everything worked out haha. That would've been a bitch if you got stranded on the GSP around that time. Primetime for the Six Flags goers haha

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Surprisingly the wife is not too mad. She did tell me she took a Xanax when we broke down though because the anxiety of being stranded in 105 degree heat was too much 😂😂

Awesome story and what a coincidence with my own on Friday...

105 degrees on opposite sides of the country.
A 4.8is and a 3.0 both giving the electrical middle finger to the very hand that feeds them.

So far, most of the people I surround myself with have also said how glad they weren't with me. That leaves me feeling a bit exposed. I mean, what happens if *I* don't know WTF to do? I guess then, what? We're all screwed?

And now that I think of it.. The answer is 'No'. BC I have no idea what to do pretty much every day with every day things and these are the people who get me pointed in the right direction. So if the spouse ever starts complaining when the big sh!t is going on... I just remind her... Hey. This is when *I* know what to do. You I will see for dinner on Tuesday.

[StephenVA]

Summer heat charging issues on a weekend, got to make for a L O N G DAY. Glad to hear it all manageable ....

[motordavid]

R/B...helluva story as I remarked to you on FB.
With our '01 still running on orig alt/regulator, I need to hit one of the always packed/getting pricey western NC area Indies and see if they can diagnose my need for new.

We do road trips regularly in the ol'X and I don't need it going Toes Up electrically on the road, esp when it will happen when we need to 'get there/be there'.

Any advice from the 'auto electric' mavens here on how to assess the current condition of alt/reg would be appreciated vs my spending a day at the Indie and hearing their litany of 'these 14 things need to be replace, it will take 3 days and will cost $_____".

GL, post Dlr visit.
BR, mD

[Joshdub]

Check for voltage while running. If it fluctuates a lot or if it's around 13v or below it's most likely on its way out. A healthy alt (on the 3.0 at least) will put out between 13.5 to 14v.

[Ricky Bobby]

When I changed my battery in December voltage was 13.5 while running.

I mean short of running Test 9 all the time - no way to really "predict" IMO - I have had zero symptoms - maybe twice in the past 4 years I had a random xenon flicker (turned on and off randomly a few times then stayed on and threw a low beam error) but it was totally random and nothing else.

Like I said I had about 8 miles of driving with the battery light slowly flashing on and then off again - then it stayed on as I was getting to the gas station and when I restarted after I filled up (with the AC off now) - I was at 11.1v so I knew I was fucked.

I guess if you see the temp extremes we can get in Jersey (up to 110 ambient in the summer, below 0 in winter) I would say those alternators might be the hardest worked - if your climate sees less extremes then maybe even if your X is older than mine (mD for example) you may get more life.

This has nothing to do with mileage by the way and everything to do with temp extremes and age - I have 88k miles. And I probably have more electrical load with my xenons, 2-axle air suspension, etc.

I will say it is one of those things I would replace preventatively "while I'm in there" or if I had to take the belts off, etc.

On the 3.0 if one was having the OFHG leak for example I would replace the alternator since you have to remove it anyway - I don't have the leak so I didn't get the opportunity. Also I guess if you are doing belts, tensioners, etc it's kinda right there so would be good to get tested.

Anyways I'll update as I get my X back - would be nice if I didn't fry my new battery as well.

Oh, and g300d - thanks for the wishes, although I'm a few weeks shy of my 30th birthday - picked myself out a Walther PPQ M2 9mm - I'll post updates in the "other thread"

[Joshdub]

FCP has a pretty good selection on reman alts if thats your style. I have the reman 140amp one. The price and lifetime warranty is hard to beat.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...tor-x5-al9413x