With our last E70 I carried a spare voltage regulator and coil pac just incase. The voltage regulator did in fact go on that one and it was lots of fun watching the systems slowly shut down and warning lights come on as we drove home. Funny thing was the battery light never came on...

Ugh just found out from my Indy that my alternator is on the fritz. It's the original 12 years old with 103K miles on it. The past 6 months, a few times, if I hit a bump, all the dashboard lights come, but it resets as I'm driving. Last Sunday night, it happened again but this time shut down. Indy did all the voltage tests and said it's starting to go and it's better to do it now then when it totally goes out.

Huh. Not a bad ground cable?!?

They checked all the wiring first. He actually showed me the alternator after they pulled it had a burnt smell which said was not normal. Not sure the correlation of hitting a bump but that seemed to trigger it.

Do a google search:


Bad ground strap damage alternator


I think you may be surprised.... as the strap flexes and the voltage/current jumps around it can damage the alternator.


Sure the alt may be bad, but the strap might explain the 'correlation w the bump' part.


just a wag.

GL

Ok, thanks for the information. Well, in any event, it was nearing the end of it's lifespan so I'm ok with getting it replaced.

same happened to me. no battery light, systems just started shutting down. barely crawled into my driveway.