4.8i Alternator life .
 

Hello, i have a 2007 4.8 with about 260K Km (160K miles) . I do some long distance driving with the family a few times a year, and I was just wondering if anyone has high mileage like me on the original alternator?
I was going to pull it out next month or so to inspect how much wear is left on the brushes and the com.

Mine failed on our n62 at 115k miles. But probably not the fault of the alternator. Had a valve cover leak that "helped" it. Took out the voltage regulator.

Yea that is common. Same happened to my friends.
Thanks.

Have you scanned your battery for the recent charging? That should tell you a good story. You sure your alternator is original?


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I'm going to. I know my alternator is charging well. But i will scan it. i'm just paranoid.

Graphed my volatage and i'm always between 14.5 and 14.9.

I know its working good. Just worried more about the brushes ending there life when I'm on a long drive.

At 160k miles, your'e definitely on borrowed time. I lost mine at around 80k miles due to burned out regulator due to timing cover leak, but if you've kept it clean of oil, I suspect you can make it to 180k miles if you're lucky.

Our first E70 N62 alt lasted 140k Kms (replaced voltage regulator) our other E70 N62 made it to 110k Kms (bearing failure). At 260k you are doing well but as mentioned on borrowed time in my opinion.

"Invest" in an AAA Tow Policy w 200 miles.


No matter what you replace, it will be something ELSE that fails!



;)

If it's not broke, don't fix it. Alternator bearings (in general and in all cars) tend to be the first thing to go. You'll know. It will start howling like a bad wheel bearing. 99% of the time the bearings fail softly...they'll just get louder and louder as time goes on, thus, giving you plenty of warning. I see a lot of people posting about the voltage regulator. I thought the E70 doesn't use a voltage regulator on the alternator? I think that because I've read it somewhere or heard it mentioned on a battery coding tutorial video. That's why coding the battery is so important so the DME knows what to tell the alternator to put out. Maybe the pre LCI ones had voltage regulators and LCI ones don't. I'd have to look up part number for both and compare.

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.