Thread: Alternator - Regulator replacement

So Easter Saturday, all packed up and ready to go, the D3 V8 started flashing up all sorts of strange messages on the dash, and on the Nanocom. Originally I thought the break pedal switch was a bit sus, then found a flat battery, and finally traced it to the alternator trying to charge the battery at 18V - a dead regulator. So the family took off in the wife's Camry instead (which never fails)

Not keen to replace the whole alternator, I found an American eBay seller who sold just the regulator, which I could get for under $100 shipped.

Ordered it, and it arrived when we got back from holidays, so set about seeing how easy it was to remove the alternator, and replace the regulator. Compared to my experiences with my old D2 TD5, removing the alternator was a piece of cake, and replacing the regulator similarly easy.

Short story, the D3 is now up and running again, and charging at the right voltage. (images below)

In the meantime, I also replaced the thermostat and thermostat housing, the two belts on the front of the engine and the PCV valve as preventative maintenance. Mostly went well. When it was all back together, the V8 refused to idle properly, and had been throwing all sorts of error codes. My neighbour, a diesel mechanic, was convinced it was an injector that had gummed up or was failing, and it really did sound like it - a really regular miss at idle, but seemed good at speed. I did try given the engine a blast to clear the injector, but it threw an engine code when I put the foot down at speed, and put it into limp mode. I ended up sealing the throttle body gasket in case it was a vacuum leak, and putting the old PCV valve back in (the new one looked like it had been leaking on to the rocker cover), and it's all good again.

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Here's a listing to one of the regulators

2006 2007 Land Rover Alternator REGULATOR Discovery III LR3 V8 11206 YLE500190, | eBay


As far as the miss at idle is concerned, I put the new PCV valve back on, and it's still all good, so it seems the issue was a vacuum leak in the throttle body, which I fixed by tightening up and using some gasket goo of some sort. Blue stuff.

Still throwing a few codes, and has the HDC/Transmission/Park Brake fault randomly at start up but I'm working through a few basics on that before resorting to paying a mechanic.