Do I really need a $3000.00 alternator?

I have been having trouble with the alternator in my 1994 348ts Challenge. I had it rebuilt 4 months ago and now it is fried already. I also had a brand new battery put in 4 weeks ago and now it is toast. So out of frustration,and a tinge of hope, I have taken it to The dealership. I now have another new battery and another rebuilt alternator. I have been told no guarantees that the rebuilt alternator won't do the same thing. I respect that and their knowledge. I was told that an OEM alternator is the only way to really fix the problem.. I will spend the money if it fixes it but, Dang! 3k makes me sick.
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I had a Lambo jalpa with bad cooling fans that damaged the diodes in the wimpy 55a Bosch alternator 3 times before we traced it down. Put in a bigger VW alternator, fixed the fans and the car was fine. You have another issue causing the alternator problems. No way a rebuilt alternator should not work as is. Find and fix the root cause.

 

The Delco alternator that the car came with is junk but that does not explain the problem you are having. You need to find someone who will fix your car and quit just throwing parts at it.

Either the alternators are being badly rebuilt (no surprise there, most are) or there is an underlying problem that is not being addressed.

90+% of auto mechanics have little to no ability to diagnose and fix electrical systems. If throwing an alternator and battery at the problem doesn't do it they are lost. Take your car to a respected auto electric specialist and get it fixed once.

 

Check to see if the ground strap was re-installed when the alternator was rebuilt. Happened to me when I purchased the car and was trying to make the 500 mile drive back. The Ferrari dealership outside Washington DC told me the alternator (that was replaced just 8 months prior) fried due to nobody putting the ground strap back in. The alternator ends up pulling from the casing of the alternator and cooking all the diodes.

I sure the he!! would not buy a $3,000 alternator with the prancing horse on it. If you need new one or rebuild, go to the sticky that lists all the subsitute replacements that are available. Towards the end of the thread, somebody was nice enough to do an excel spread sheet listing all the parts and their subsitutes-which is worth printing out and keeping on hand. Good luck.

 

Cant something more modern be retrofitted to this?

 

What he said.

 

That is exactly what the $3000 kit is.


The tinker toy Delco, the mounting brackets, all the mounting hardware and the alternator harness go in the garbage where they belong. The kit replaces all that stuff and you get an ND alternator.

Ferrari paid parts and labor fot that kit for years after those cars were out of warranty for just about anyone that asked but many if not most of the dealers were not looking out for their clients by signing them up for the conversion. The dealer I was in installed the kit in every single 348 and Mondial T that came in the driveway.

 

My tinker toy Delco works just fine AFTER I found a competant mechanic that understood the importance of a ground strap and that one was missing.

Each his own, but I would rather drive down a highway and throw $2,775.00 out the window ($3,000 less the $225 for the tinker toy Delco alternator). I would get much more entertainment watching people slam on the brakes and fight over the money than worring whether my $3000 horse alternator was going to last (again).

 

Reading comprehension problem?

Maybe you should try rereading my advice. I didn't advocate buying anything.

I told him to bring it to someone who knew what the **** they were doing.

 

In answer to your question of whether you have to replace your alternator with the Delco unit with Ferrari tax added the answer is no - in fact even Ferrari realised they were not good so the 105 Amp Delco unit was replaced by a 140 Amp Nippon unit on the Euro cars in '92. They are far better and many cars over here have now had the Delco unit replaced with the Nippon one. You can buy them over here for more like $700 from here :
http://www.eurospares.co.uk/searchResult_one.asp?S=156235&TM=1&TMo=434&TA=1&TB=23684

Or if you prefer to get them directly through Ferrari, from here for about $800:
https://www.ferrariparts.co.uk/Default.aspx (just chuck the part number in the search box which is 156235)

If you get stuck with either of those drop me a line and I'll chat to some guys I know in the dealers etc - sure we can find one somewhere. It does require some changes to wiring but only minor, I'm sure your mech can handle it (as long as he wants to )

 

RD, obviously the first step is just what you've said. Is the replacement you've mentioned the Nippon unit I've thrown up or did they use a different one on the US cars for some reason?

 

I had my 1991 348tb alternator rebuilt when I first acquired the car 8 months ago. The internals were damaged from excessive heat, all the bearings and parts were blueish.

After the rebuild with off the shelf GM parts, and a heat shield installed, the car has run fine for the 5k miles I've put on the car since. Its my daily driver and not once have I had a problem with the battery or alternator since the rebuild.

As an EE and ME engineer, I know there's no black magic when it comes to this stuff. At least on my car excessive heat was the issue, and a simple heat shield fixed the problem.

Now I just wish I took a picture of the head shield before it was all put back together.

Just my $0.02

 

I've even put extra ground straps on past cars that I've suspected have had questionable grounding issues. An extra from the alternator to the body sheet metal and an extra to the engine block. Agree countless times that grounding strap can build resistance with time and heat. Denso is a nice unit.. I'd change to used Denso unit and rebuild it with new diodes and voltage regulator if it were me..

 

The alternators can be rebuilt for $50-$100 if you do the work yourself. Here are the DIY instructions. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q/142329-348-alternator-removal-rebuild.html Be sure to read the entire thread before you dig in. Oh, and some of the links are dead. If you want a brand new alternator do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy one from the dealer, buy it from these guys RaceProven.com: Alternators: Racing The alternator the dealers supply is nothing more than a Nippondenso alternator. Which are just fine, but some of the parts in the stock alternator can't hang. So you either rebuild yours with the better parts listed in the rebuild thread, or buy a new unit from Race Proven.

And +2 on the ground strap, check that first.

 

I don't think you can get new alternators for the 348 anymore.

Mine failed last year and the Ferrari dealer couldn't find one anywhere.

 

Which one was he looking for, Sy? My unit was looking a bit worse for ware and I had the updated Nippon unit put in instead (which yours should be anyway). Maybe I got the last one

 

Mines the Nippon one or whatever the later one is.

No more left at the Factory.

 

Shame. Do you still need one? There's a new one of the right spec on ebay.co.uk at the mo.

 

I picked the car up from FOH on Friday. They had the alternator rebuilt and put in another new battery. My old Battery was purchased from some one else and was only 4 weeks old. My old alternator was rebuilt by a different shop 8 weeks ago. It is always a joy to do the same thing twice... and pay for it.. Not!

Anyway, so far so good right now. I was warned by one of the mechanics about non Ferrari alternators in the car. He told me I have the 140 Amp.

I sure do not want to fry anything by trying to put something in there that should not be there.

Oh! and they did say that there was a fair bit of corrosion on the terminals..

 

It's only been one day.

Ferrari doesn't make alternators. They've sourced them from GM, Nippondenso and Bosch.

Now this is a good start at finding the problem! Did you get a flickering battery light in the past...before the first time the alternator was rebuilt?

I had that warning light flicker a few times and then come on steady in my F355 Challenge at Watkins Glen last year as I circled the garage heading out to the track. I circled back to my garage spot and showed the technician the light. He jacked up the car, cleaned the terminals and adjusted the connector. I only missed the first five minutes of the session.

 

This is a very, very good point.

 

It's only been one day.

Yea, I know... But I want to post an update to all you folks that are responding as soon as I can. I cannot stand people that start the threads and never follow up..
Ferrari doesn't make alternators. They've sourced them from GM, Nippondenso and Bosch.

Ah! Very good! You are right.. That would have been an excellent reply.. Had I thought of it..

Now this is a good start at finding the problem! Did you get a flickering battery light in the past...before the first time the alternator was rebuilt?

Yep! That is exactly what it did!

 

Eric,

I wish you would have replied to the mechanic that way too. But now's the time for you to re-read what Rifledriver said in this post earlier in this thread: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142209778-post3.html

In my case at Watkins Glen, I did what I typically do at track events; periodically scan my instrument panel and gauges. I knew there was a problem and went back to the garage where one of several experienced support techs immediately diagnosed the problem and instituted repair. I got under the car with him to see what the problem was.

When my car returned to my facility after the DE event, the chief tech felt that the connector was still serviceable and adjusted it further to make optimum contact. Of course he cleaned the contacts again as well.

Fortunately, in your case, the mechanic noticed the corrosion on the terminals. As I mentioned, that was a good start at diagnosing your car's problem.

By the way, that's a pretty 348CH you have. Congratulations! Drive it in good health.

Barry

 

My alternator on my 92 348ts let go at 27,500 km's. Its a well known problem on the 348's and 355's I believe. Zagame here in Melbourne had it rebuilt with Nippon parts. All up $586. They simply sub'd it out to a local auto-electrician. Pull it out and go and get a couple of quotes !!

 

I never heard of an auto-electric facility until I had my Delorean in 2001. My car was simply dead every time I had to start it again after a couple days. New battery and new alternator later, a friendly mechanic told me it was too costly for him to diagnose a crazy electrical problem. He referred me to an auto electric shop. They were great. They diagnosed a loose wire in the alternator making contact and draining the battery. Total repair cost $25.00. I was so thankful to the first mechanic for the referral and pointing out he simply couldn't do it. Always find your self an auto electric place. They can diagnose stuff like that immediately. That's all they do all day.