LR3 Alternator Replacement

[johnsoax]

My Alternator just died in early January too. Replaced with an Autozone model. Replaced all the belts and the tensioners too, as I had 137k miles at the time.

Now worried my battery is going one. A few issues keep popping up. Every time I drive through a certain stretch of road (about once a week), I get a "Reduced Engine Performance" message for about 10 seconds, and then it goes away and the truck never acts like anything is wrong. Also, I keep getting random Suspension fault errors, usually soon after start up. They clear with a "reboot" of the system (turning the rig off and back on). Battery is 3 years and 6 month old. I had planned on changing it in October, but had no issues, so decided to hold off...

Of course, the week after I changed the alternator in my LR3, my wife's Durango alternator decided to fry itself. It shorted, and caused a ton of smoke to come out. Drained the battery too.

On the plus side, the battery on the Durango came right back with an overnight recharge, and I found out both vehicles take the same battery..

 

[454]

I installed the Vatozone reman about a month ago. So far, so good. And the core charge was so cheap that I just kept the original and I'm having that one rebuilt.

 

[Victory_Overland]

My Alternator just died in early January too. Replaced with an Autozone model. Replaced all the belts and the tensioners too, as I had 137k miles at the time.

Now worried my battery is going one. A few issues keep popping up. Every time I drive through a certain stretch of road (about once a week), I get a "Reduced Engine Performance" message for about 10 seconds, and then it goes away and the truck never acts like anything is wrong. Also, I keep getting random Suspension fault errors, usually soon after start up. They clear with a "reboot" of the system (turning the rig off and back on). Battery is 3 years and 6 month old. I had planned on changing it in October, but had no issues, so decided to hold off...

Of course, the week after I changed the alternator in my LR3, my wife's Durango alternator decided to fry itself. It shorted, and caused a ton of smoke to come out. Drained the battery too.

On the plus side, the battery on the Durango came right back with an overnight recharge, and I found out both vehicles take the same battery..

That's a fairly old battery! Maybe throw it on the trickle everynight for a few days and see if you still maintain a hefty charge. Short trips never really get the battery back to full charge so not sure how much driving you are doing daily.

Keep us posted!

 

[johnsoax]

It kills me that we think a 3 year old battery in a car is old. I have had cars with the original battery as the second owner and never changed the battery. Most cars don't care if the battery loses 15% of its capacity. The LR3 seems to care if you lose 5%. My wife's 2013 Durango has the exact same battery type in it, and it has the original battery..

I have thought about hooking up the trickle charge overnight, I just keep forgetting to do it. I will try to remember tonight and see if that does anything.

The funny thing about the Reduced engine performance message is that it always happens when I am driving home and have been driving at highway speeds for 15-20 minutes. More than enough time to charge up the battery.

 

[454]

The LR3 has more computers than a spacecraft. It wants plenty of power.

I suspect that the winter temperatures may have something to do with your battery issue.

 

[tdhunter13]

@454 Have you found anyone that will rebuild your original unit? If so, do you mind passing that info along? The only place I have found is Quality Power out in CA and they want around $300 to make it a High Output model like the ebay one.

@Johnsoax you might check out RayG build thread, specifically post #423 HERE as he put in an on board charger for his dual battery setup. It takes a little of the hassle out of having to hook up a trickle charger all the time. This is what I am leaning toward.

 

[iowalr4]

I opted to not put the actual charger in the engine bay. I read somewhere that it is not recommended, but it seems to be setup to just plug in from the outside.

 

[454]

@454 Have you found anyone that will rebuild your original unit? If so, do you mind passing that info along? The only place I have found is Quality Power out in CA and they want around $300 to make it a High Output model like the ebay one....

There's an old man in a cinder block building in Marietta, Georgia that's been my go-to starter and alternator guy for a few years. He has my old 4.4 alt now. I'm not sure what the total will be; I hope it's less than $300. I may try to call him and see if it's ready.

Edit: He's waiting on a regulator. He figures it'll be about $100 total.

 

[Victory_Overland]

It kills me that we think a 3 year old battery in a car is old. I have had cars with the original battery as the second owner and never changed the battery. Most cars don't care if the battery loses 15% of its capacity. The LR3 seems to care if you lose 5%.

Yes, I should have rephrased my comment when I said "Old battery" and referred it to the LR and could be used in any other vehicle for normal operations....lol

Cold weather does for sure work a battery much harder but you may have further issues like the alternator. Is there a wine, howl, or anything of the sort coming from your alternator at start up? Mine would howl pretty bad and it was my indicator and fairly clear. I drove it like that for another month until I started seeing other issues arise related to the radio (power saver), and a few other minor issues I would see related to power. Charge looked completely normal on the meter in the carport but of course I could not meter it on the road under power and speed and that is where I would see power saver stuff showing up.

I decided to run the trickle charger at night until it finally failed.

 

[johnsoax]

I was driving on an alternator that I think has been going bad since April 2016. That was when I got the first error message. And a strange noise under the hood I couldn't track down. As of the Jan 2017 alternator change I posted earlier, all strange noises are gone from under the hood. Now I think maybe the battery is "weak" for the LR3, but it is 42 month olds or so. I've run the trickle charge the past two days. Thursday night, I had it on 2amps, but Friday night, it got bumped to the 10 amp setting and it tripped the GFCI it was plugged into. Not sure what that was about. Have it in 2 amp again tonight, but not planning on driving the Rover tomorrow. Will probably look at getting a new battery next month.

 

[proslambanomenos]

Regarding the powermax ebay alternator for you who've bought it: how is it doing?

I am thinking of buying it to replace the oreilly one i put in that is now already dying.

It looks like powermax is just remanufacturing the oem denso and then putting a smaller pulley on it, which means it will just spin faster. I'm concerned that this will cause early failure due to increased rpm. Perhaps some of you with experience can comment on how it's doing and if my suspicions are correct? I've added a 12v fridge, a ~200w lightbar, a ~20amp ham radio, installed a few 5v 2amp usb charging ports.

Thanks guys!

 

[454]

Update: my AutoZone alternator is done. It lasted less than a year. An OEM is going in as I type this. Over eight bills installed, but I suspect it will last more than a year.

 

[DiscoNels]

Update: my AutoZone alternator is done. It lasted less than a year. An OEM is going in as I type this. Over eight bills installed, but I suspect it will last more than a year.

Ouch, $800+!?!?!? I would hope one could do that install themselves, (I've done it) fairly easy, and save over $500 in the process.

 

[454]

Ouch, $800+!?!?!? I would hope one could do that install themselves, (I've done it) fairly easy, and save over $500 in the process.

I've done it myself before. But at 0900 on a cold Monday morning after having sewage back into the house the previous day, $800 seemed cheap.

 

[LKLK]

@454 Have you found anyone that will rebuild your original unit? If so, do you mind passing that info along? The only place I have found is Quality Power out in CA and they want around $300 to make it a High Output model like the ebay one.

@Johnsoax you might check out RayG build thread, specifically post #423 HERE as he put in an on board charger for his dual battery setup. It takes a little of the hassle out of having to hook up a trickle charger all the time. This is what I am leaning toward.

This sounds like it would be a good opportunity to get some extra amperage into the lr3!