want to upgrade my alternator anyone done that and where did you get part from?

[jayla]

hi

after i installed to amps in the car i noticed the interior lights dim and the rev needle on idle shakes up and down due to the sound system power. i got a feeling this is due to the alternator and i must be puting alot of strain on it which is not good. soo what i need to do is upgrade my alternator soo it puts less strain on the alternator and no dimming and rev needle stops shaking on idle.

ok i did a few hours of research on here and google to find out what alternator i have in the car and also what i can upgrade it to. this is how fur i got.

The alternator i have in the car i am guessing is a valeo 90A alternator. i did have a look underthehood all i saw was valeo as i needed a mirror. the upgrade ppl online have done is use a bosch 120A alternator some ppl say it fit perfect and some ppl say one thread does not fit. question is has anyone done this as i want to know. do i need to also change the belt and also where and what exact model it is soo it fits perfect without adding extra bolts. yea i know i have to also change the battery to heavy duty one as well.

But i guess the easiers is to get a second hand SMG e46 alternator as that is already 120A alternator and guessing tht will fit perfect. some1 selling one on ebay but for £150 used dont think thats worth it. so if some1 does know a model and knows where to get it frm pls let me know

want to do something like this. he has put a 140A alternator tho

[Dicky]

That one in the link is it an E36 or E46?

I haven't done it on an E46 but we use to loads of these on other cars of all sorts of makes and models. You could always take a larger models alternator and slap it on and don't forget to upgrade to a larger battery as well

I would have thought a larger engine alternator should fit yours as we use to put larger BMW ones on samller cars like a E38 on to an E36 which was a good upgrade and back in the day Granada Scorpio one on to Mk3/4 Escorts oh what fun, sometines you needed a belt change but not very often

One of teh best people tp speak to would be your local auto leccy, we had one near me that know tons about alternators and always were happy to check sizes and specs

Sorry I don't have a answer as such for you but my thoughts on it is it wouldn't be that hard and should be quite straight forward

[mit]

I think your problems are coming from putting a huge sound system in a 316i. Get a bigger engine, and more/better batteries.

You already probably have a lot of extra weight you're carrying around all the time (all of which is over the rear wheels), which is probably not doing your handling, engine (or fuel economy) any favours.

You might find (from your research) that the people who say the bigger alternator fits have LHD cars and the ones who say it doesn't have RHD (just one possible reason why you might have inconsistent reports).

[MattBMW]

dicky +1

[jayla]

i found out that car with electric seats have the 120A alternator hmm i dnt have electric seat dam lol. my system is not that loud. totel powee is 900 rms watts. i will only 450 rms watts as both amps are on half on the amp. i think battery upgrade might solve it because present bmw battery is like 6 years old. what you think?

hmm bigger engine that extreme nothing to do with the topic. if you did not know the car has a m43 engine which is a 2L engine and same engine which is used in the 318i as well. engine has go notihng to do with this and 2L is not something i would call a small engine. yea i also know deisel engine have a higher alternator and i think cars over 2.5 maybe as well But that does mean i have to change my car just for a alternator.

[mit]

my system is not that loud. totel powee is 900 rms watts.

I think you just need a better (or another) battery.

900 watts is very powerful if you ask me. It would probably get you an asbo if you played it whilst stationary

[MattBMW]

Jayla silly question maybe but have you got any power caps in your system as thes reduce the strain on the alternator?

[Jay.]

off topic i know but the 316I facelift is a 1796cc (1.8) 16v valvetronic engine. not the 1995cc (2.0) 16v valvetronic engine the 318I facelifts have.

look on

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/Detail.aspx?deriv=22664

[Dicky]

Total power is 900 rms watts.

I must be getting old, but in my day a 900 WRMS system would be one hell of a big system

What amps are you running? Is that RMS or Peak?

Also if your battery is 6 years old then that won't be helping matters

[jayla]

Jayla silly question maybe but have you got any power caps in your system as thes reduce the strain on the alternator?

yea i have 1 farad cap to the sub amp only. caps is a short term fix thy dont help much. they only help for a few seconds when power is lacking. tell you the truth

[jayla]

off topic i know but the 316I facelift is a 1796cc (1.8) 16v valvetronic engine. not the 1995cc (2.0) 16v valvetronic engine the 318I facelifts have.

look on

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/Detail.aspx?deriv=22664

if you have a proper look there is more then one model in both the 316i which you can have a look here both 316 and 318 models

my car is not the one you shown above plus it not 16V as well. mine is a 8V and is a 1895cc so a 1.9l but i rounded it to 2. here is the link to it and yea i know it slow lol. link

And i know for a pre-face 318i which i was refering to has the exact engine but abit faster. m43 engine. yea the 318I facelift has a much better engine and is 2L and much more power.

I do have the slowest car on this forum so who has the fastest car

[jayla]

I must be getting old, but in my day a 900 WRMS system would be one hell of a big system

What amps are you running? Is that RMS or Peak?

Also if your battery is 6 years old then that won't be helping matters

well 900 Wrms is max RMS note which i will never run. the most i will run is half of that due to keep both volumes on the amp on half only.

i have 4 vibe speaker running to a jenson 500 watt amp (peak) and then another sony D class 1600w amp for one 12 inch in-phase sub. But remember sub is 4ohms which means max peak watts is 1000watts and rms is 500 watts.

and then keeping in mind both amps are on half always . i am truly impressed with the vibe speaker when amped well worth it. they have a wider tweeter on it which make me here all the treble crystal clear.

i got the sony amp free so thought might as well make good use of it and jensen amp was from my old car. For temporary i am going to lower the amp gain more and reduce the bass so that will put less strain on the alternator. if anyone knws where to get a bosch silvertop would be helpful thanks a link. i have a look if halfords sell it.

[Rob.S]

fi i were you I'd buy the biggest battery you can fit in the battery tray I run an 067 battery which is huge due to having a 2.7 eta engine in my e30, I changed to an M50 2.5 non vanos and have never had any problems when having music loud etc the rms on my amp is 900w and sub can pull over that, never had any probs

[starryboy]

Sounds like a lot of agro for a bit of "boom boom shake the room". I like the standard stuff, its loud enough for me. But i suspect thats something to do with my age! LMAO

[mit]

Sounds like a lot of agro for a bit of "boom boom shake the room". I like the standard stuff, its loud enough for me. But i suspect thats something to do with my age! LMAO

I 100% agree with you on that!

I have a stupidly loud stereo at 'only' 540W RMS, but that was actually to get ipod, navigation and bluetooth and I thought I might as well do it properly while I was at it

[starryboy]

I 100% agree with you on that!

I have a stupidly loud stereo at 'only' 540W RMS, but that was actually to get ipod, navigation and bluetooth and I thought I might as well do it properly while I was at it

LOL

I kept mine simple, nav was built in anyway, Parrot 3200 handsfree hidden in the centre console and £7 cassette interface for my iphone. Job Done!

[mit]

LOL

I kept mine simple, nav was built in anyway, Parrot 3200 handsfree hidden in the centre console and £7 cassette interface for my iphone. Job Done!

lol yeah I probably should have done the same. Problem was my car's a 2000 and I couldn't do a bluetooth retrofit without doing a nav retrofit first, so was already looking at £2k+ and thought I may as well go aftermarket for that kind of money...

[starryboy]

What have you used? Desion / Dice or some other gadgetry?

I think that youve done it the best way. Trouble is im a real tight git with my cash lol Work paid for the kit to be fitted, which cos its a vert had to be plugged into the stuff in the boot! The cables wernt long enough on the unit to be able to mount it on the dash, which is why it ended up hiding in the centre console. Which in hindsight is good for prying eyes when the roof is down!

[Jay.]

jayla, if you put your reg plate in here

http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortal...event=link.next

it will tell you the engine size of your car.

if it says 1796cc it will be a 1.8 16v (as i posted the link above)

if it says 1896cc it will be a 1.9 8v (like you say)

if it says 1995cc it will be a 2.0 16v (what my 318ci is)

[Dicky]

Mate

If you are looking to upgrade your battery for an audio system then what you need is an Optima battery, I always use to fit the Yellow Tops to my car they are a great battery and are deep cycle, excellent for your sort of install

Something like this :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/D1000S-Optima-Yellow...A1%7C240%3A1318

[mit]

What have you used? Desion / Dice or some other gadgetry?

I think that youve done it the best way. Trouble is im a real tight git with my cash lol Work paid for the kit to be fitted, which cos its a vert had to be plugged into the stuff in the boot! The cables wernt long enough on the unit to be able to mount it on the dash, which is why it ended up hiding in the centre console. Which in hindsight is good for prying eyes when the roof is down!

I had them all. Went for Dension first but got a clicking noise. No good. Then went for DICE and got a whining noise when the hard drive of the ipod did anything. No good. Then gave up and went for an Alpine Vehicle Hub setup with amp and subwoofer and all sorts, but the display looked like a commodore 64, you had to press the screen 4 times to change radio stations, the bluetooth would randomly blank out and the ipod song name didn't always update, so went for a double din Kenwood unit in the end (still driving the amp and sub etc). The Kenwood is not without its flaws but it does the job most of the time and I'm fed up now so not interested in spending good money after bad anymore...

My ipod is in the glovebox because it locks when the car is locked (also a 'vert)...

[john220985]

hi mate ive done the alternator upgrade on my 318ci se 16v 4cyl (1.995cc). as you have already researched it comes with a lame 90amp alternator that was giving me all kinds of issues. i decided to change it to the bosch 120a alternator it was a refurbed item as what they do to many alternators. bought the item gave to my mechanic had it fitted a couple of hours later. Right im currently running 2 jl 12w7v2 and a crappy x plod amp (soon to go jl) with a total RMS of 800. since the upgrade my system can run all day n nite no problems. HOWEVER! only drawback that has happened is it has triggered my battery lite on my dash which stays there permanantly, i think because the ecu is detecting a much larger ampage but the car runs fine and has been for over a year with the mod done. I mainly wanted the alternator upgrade because i wana go with a 13w7 eventually and needed to make sure my alternator was future proof. I also have an optima yellow top battery and a 1.5 farad cap. if you dont want to spend a lot of money on a battery like a yellow top ive also successfully fitted the battery out of a 330 diesel which need much more powerful batteries. E46 battery housings are fairly large by the way hope this helped.

ps there is not enough stuff out there for us 4 cyl 16v owners

[jayla]

hi

thanks for the info. i down graded my system so less power but my rev counter does still shack. but not that worried as i think it might be old car battery. so when it does go i will be getting a bosch battery used for the 330.

jay

[Mark330Vert]

Mate

If you are looking to upgrade your battery for an audio system then what you need is an Optima battery, I always use to fit the Yellow Tops to my car they are a great battery and are deep cycle, excellent for your sort of install

Something like this :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/D1000S-Optima-Yellow...A1%7C240%3A1318

x2 with dicky i used Yellow Top on my last install. Cant remember Facts of what i had......