Alternator replacement for 2005 RR HSE?

[invisible]

During a recent test of the battery, I was told that the battery is fine, but the alternator does not do its job.

I have a couple of questions - first of all, is it OK to leave it as is, without replacing it, considering that I drive less than 200 miles per month on this car and am putting the battery on maintainer/trickle charge between driving?

Secondly, if I decide to replace the alternator, what model/manufacturer would you recommend? There is a whole zoo there from $100 to $1300 - I obviously won't pay the latter price, considering that I want to keep the car for no more than 2-3 years.

Thanks.

 

[Escape]

It all depends at how bad the alternator is doing it's job and what it wrong with it. If it's not delivering it's full output, that's not a big problem, especially if you keep the battery topped up. Mind you, the Range Rover has a big battery so you need a decent charger to be able to actually charge it rather than maintain it.

If on the other hand the voltage regulator in the alternator is failing, this can cause voltage spikes and play havoc with the elektrickery in the car.

I take it you don't get the charge warning light on the dash? You really need to take some measurements, like voltage delivered to the battery with engine running. If that's between 13V and 15V, you should be fine using it like that.

If you do need/want to replace, look around for places that rebuild alternators. Typically $100-$200 and better quality than a cheap replacement.

[Bowie69]

Is it not a smart alternator at that age?

In other words, does it turn it off when the battery is full...? In which case the normal multimeter /battery tester won't be accurate enough. 

[invisible]

20 minutes ago, Escape said:

It all depends at how bad the alternator is doing it's job and what it wrong with it. If it's not delivering it's full output, that's not a big problem, especially if you keep the battery topped up. Mind you, the Range Rover has a big battery so you need a decent charger to be able to actually charge it rather than maintain it.

If on the other hand the voltage regulator in the alternator is failing, this can cause voltage spikes and play havoc with the elektrickery in the car.

I take it you don't get the charge warning light on the dash? You really need to take some measurements, like voltage delivered to the battery with engine running. If that's between 13V and 15V, you should be fine using it like that.

If you do need/want to replace, look around for places that rebuild alternators. Typically $100-$200 and better quality than a cheap replacement.

Nothing is flickering in terms of the electrical system, no warning lights, etc. Just when I took it to the auto parts shop they brought that tester and told me that battery is fine, but the alternator does not charge it as it is supposed to be.
And the reason why I took it for the battery testing is that it has a parasitic drain, even when off - I left the car in the garage for 2 weeks and when got back was completely drained battery, I posted here about it.

So I initially blamed this on a non-performing battery, thinking the battery that is less than 9 months old was bad. Did some reading and yep, discovered that this is a well-known problem as well. I got a smart battery charger that charges and then does battery maintaining.

The question is - how to check if the alternator is going really bad or I can live with it in its current condition. I do have multimeter, just want to know how to test accurately.

[Bowie69]

As above, if it is smart, then you are in a different field from a normal alternator test. 

You could try starting it and then immediately measuring, should be north of 14V in an ideal world, after a run it may only show battery voltage (<13V).

[Escape]

Just put the multimeter across the battery terminal and measure, first with engine off, then engine running. The second reading should obviously be higher.

An auto shop that does a test and claims something is not as it should without giving a more detailed explanation (when asked for) would not get a vote of confidence from me. So better to do it yourself! A known cause of parasitic drain is the resistor pack for the interior fan, as those have a permanent feed.

Unless your measurements tell otherwise, the alternator is probably fine but the battery is taking a beating because of the drain. The charger should take care of that, though it's not a perfect solution in the long run obviously.

[invisible]

I am going to take the car to another parts shop where they do free battery alternator tests and at my BMW shop (the engine is BMW) to guys that I trust and ask their opinion.

 

On another forum, I got a reply that the voltage with the running engine on the battery should be in the range of 14.2V-14.4V and also I got a link with a number of alternator options:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/land+rover,2005,range+rover,4.4l+v8,1431442,electrical,alternator+/+generator,2412

Considering that the Bosch is rebuild and 2x more expensive, what are opinions on WAI GLOBAL 13815N?

[invisible]

So the multimeter shows 14.1V on idle and 14.2 on 2000RPM. After just 30 min ride battery showed 12.7V voltage once turned off the ignition.