alternator

Peace of mind always niggles in the back of my mind, frustratingly. But its an expensive spare part.

Any electric experts able to comment on my setup, for an alternator failure. I'll have 200w solar panel and 300amp hours of aux power + the cranking battery. Under extreme conditions i could bypass the traxide to make them all equalise.

How much power does the car consume under driving conditions, without the alternator supplying extra charge ? I could also rig up the solar on top of the camper to charge while on the move.

That might be a dump Q. I guess what i'm thinking is with the solar charge and the amount of battery capacity i'll have, could i avoid carrying a spare one and still crawl back from a remote (e.g. 3 days to bitumen)

cheers

My 08 RRV has a similar alternator I think. I got about 245,000km out of it (according to quite comprehensive history I have).

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Originally Posted by Ozzy119

How much power does the car consume under driving conditions, without the alternator supplying extra charge ?

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It depends on what you have running. Lights, fans, A/c, EAS compressor, radio, and the 13 ECUs! - they all draw current. (You could disable the EAS by removing the fuse).

Obviously the less you have switched on the better.

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I guess what i'm thinking is with the solar charge and the amount of battery capacity i'll have, could i avoid carrying a spare one and still crawl back from a remote (e.g. 3 days to bitumen)

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Quite likely. There is however one other thing to consider. IF the alternator did fail, you may not be able so simply forget about it and run on batteries.

Mine became noisy and very hot. I've read comments from people on LR forums who's have actually caught fire. And if it seizes what will that do to the belt.

Of course all these are big IFs ...

You would be lucky to get 30km once the alternator dies, I got 15km with one restart early on and all the bells where ringing when I was on my way back to the auto electrician.

A dead alternator on these cars seems to suck power from the battery. When my alternator died I fully charged my battery hoping to get home on that. I hooked up a multimeter to one of the cigarette lighters to monitor the battery vantage real time. Soon after I turned over the motor the volts started dropping until after a few minutes it was down to 11 volts and the dash xmas lights started. I just turned it off and got a tray top home.

In order to continue driving for any distance, you need to disconnect the positive battery lead at the alternator, ASAP to prevent the battery from dying. (disconnect the battery first, but make sure the tail gate is opened)
This will take some time and is very fiddly. I ended up removing the front wheel to gain access from below but I believe it may be possible from the top if you remove enough stuff. Once done you will have no problems travelling some distance (no Air con) In my case I still had 12.1 at the end of the day after quit a no of starts. I think with a Traxide system you should have all your batteries available, but that needs to be confirmed>

Ivan

Thanks for the updates all.

I'm taking the path of most comfort and of course expense, and having a new one installed and keep the current (so far ok one) as a garage spare. Not that i'll likely ever need it as my mind would want to replace the replacement again, instead of putting the spare back in.

so be it, more relaxed, preventative maintenance km's ahead of me.

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Originally Posted by Ozzy119

Thanks for the updates all.

I'm taking the path of most comfort and of course expense, and having a new one installed and keep the current (so far ok one) as a garage spare. Not that i'll likely ever need it as my mind would want to replace the replacement again, instead of putting the spare back in.

so be it, more relaxed, preventative maintenance km's ahead of me.

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That's exactly what I'm going to do now, get a new one put in and keep that spare as a spare again!

If it's a denso go to toybota and buy the diodes,they are about $80 and are easy to replace once the alternator is removed. Pat

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Originally Posted by PAT303

If it's a denso go to toybota and buy the diodes,they are about $80 and are easy to replace once the alternator is removed. Pat

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What a Toyota dealer?
Take the diode pack down?