DIY saved me $350 on alternator Repair
Greetings from the semi frozen tundra.
Yesterday morning I started my 535is (M30) and noticed the dash lights for alternator and brake were glowing dimly. Battery was quickly discharging and the engine soon died and would not even come close to restarting. Later that evening I pulled the voltage regulator to see if it "looked" ok. Seemed fine, and as I was getting ready to put it back in I got the idea to look into the back of the alternator with a mirror. Hmmmmm. One of the contact rings was nice and shiney, the other was brown and rustly looking. Next step, pull alternator. Closer examination on the work bench confirmed that this "rust" could easily be causing a problem. Went to the kitchen and got Q-tips and CLR cleaner. Thru the opening I swabbed the ring while spinning the shaft, then I apply a little more CLR to the tip of a rag and pressed firmly with index finger as I rotated the shaft some more. After a few minutes the connection ring was shiney again. I reinstalled the regulator, reinstalled the alternator and fired her up. JACKPOT!!! no more alternator light and she was charging at a steady 14 volts.
Hope this helps somebody sometime as I could see that it would be very easy for a repair shop to tell you your Alternator is "shot", especially on a high milage car, sell you a new bosch for $250 and charge $100 to install it.
Keep in mind, that you would probably not need to remove the alternator to clean the contact rings, but you would need to loosen the belt to spin the shaft.
Sorry, no pics.
Jeff in MN
87 535is 245k Recent top end re-work
88 528e 290k
90 535i 115k
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