So my alternator died, wife was in the states, found the right part at O'reillys (or at least the reman equivalent of what I had on the truck!) wife picks it up and flys back to the island with it.

So when I unpack it and see its exactly the same as what I had apart from the voltage regulator and the outputs.....old part has B+ stud and a smaller L stud. New part has a B+ stud and a 2 pin male plug marked L on one side and DFM on the other. Appears they screwed up and put a VW voltage reg and casing on it.

So question is will it work on the Disco - From what I can research DFM is a control for the vehicle ECU to monitor alternator output - does anyone know if it will work if I just connect to the B and L terminals only. Sending it back is not an option, it will cost more in freight than its worth and I need the truck working...
Cheers all, look forward to some insight !

 

Your idea sounds correct to me. When working correctly the battery light will come on at initial crank, then go out. The volts across battery should be between 13.8 and 14.4 at idle with just engine running. Turn on all the AC, wipers, lights - and it should not drop below 13.2 volts. Bad thing about a reman from the chain stores is they have like a 50% failure rate. Hope you are on the good side.

 

Thanks Buzz, I'll probably take a chance that the DFM output doesn't affect the actual output but is there as a monitoring output for the ECU to read in VW group cars. guess I could post on a VW forum as well.......,

 

Will amazon ship to the Cayman Islands? You can get a NEW Bosch alternator from them, if your rebuilt turns out to have problems.

 

Well the reman went in yesterday, no issues yet ! Charging fine, just cut the captured screw from the lamp/exciter wire and added a 3/16 spade terminal with some heat shrink, popped it onto the L outlet and left the DFM alone.

Getting anything posted here is a PITA, we have only box addresses and a postal service that is basically a welfare state for the otherwise unemployable. Even registered post from the US is treated as junk mail when it gets on island..... Courier is the only way to go or have friends bring stuff in under the duty radar !