[Vwdiesel] incessant whining (fwd)

[Val Christian]

In my experience, ALT whines are usually attributable to shorted windings,
sometimes open windings and failed diodes. 

If the ALT is orig. I'd be shocked.  My 03 TDI eats an alternator every 60 
or 70K (miles).  Often it's the stupid clutch in the alt pulley.  In any 
event, I bought a lifetime alt from Autozone, and almost like clockwork,
I keep going back for a swap.  If your brushes or clutch are going, they will
get worse faster with colder temps.

I think you have an electrical problem, with windings, diodes, or internal 
interconnects.  Every A2 that I owned had the alt swaped out by 280k 
miles, even though I had to replace brushes quite often.  

(Oh, the reason I change brushes often?   In the summer I like it COLD in
the car, and run the fan and AC more than the average Joe.  Brush wear is
something like power drawn + (coeff) rotations made.

Val



A

Check the alt brushes.  I haven't had a new one apart yet, (touches wood)
but the old versions would give some radio whine when either the brushes
were worn and would start to arc, or the internal ground to the voltage reg
was bad.  You could also see a perceptible flicker of the headlights getting
brighter/dimmer at a high cycle rate from the springy ground tab connection
being broken intermittently with the engine vibration.

There should be a cap in there to kill the high frequency stuff, maybe it's
failed open?
275k. pack your camp stove along on the winter trip... It's going to be
interesting to see how the new components hold up as compared to the A2
stuff.
-j

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Shalyn Shourds
Sent: October-20-10 12:05 AM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] incessant whining

In the alternator of the '00 TDI.  At least I think that's where the 
whining is coming from, via the radio.  Very recently, if I have the 
radio on, there's a whine through the speakers that varies with engine 
speed.  I just don't know what to think about it.  It's a new sound, but 
I can't tell anything from the engine bay side.  I'm disinclined to 
think it's a problem with the radio.  I can't see, however, that it's 
anything to do with the alternator that would indicate an impending 
failure.  I can't help but wonder, however, because I just rolled it 
over 275,000 miles in the midst of a 2800 mi. road trip and the 
alternator is one of a large number of original parts.  Many of those 
parts I considered wear items subject to frequent replacement on the '85 
TD, including alternators.

I've also got about 2 mos. before I drive another 17 hr. round trip 
through desolate Oklahoma and Kansas in winter so I'm already working on 
a list of preemptive repairs.....



-Shalyn
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