Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic
Congrats. You know you're an ecomodder if you will spend weeks learning what none know about alternators in pursuit of a few more mpg! Victory!!
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Yeah, victory - kind of. Temporarily and personally. But it's a shame that it seems there is no easy and universally-applicable way to safely disable an alternator - which means each person has to re-invent an individual solution, more or less.
It seems I was lucky with my first alternator in that it doesn't self-excite at normal engine revs. And lucky that I could repair it.
Some people say you can cut into the field wires inside the alternator - like the wires connecting to the brushes for example, but I can tell you on these Bosch alternators there is no way to do that as the brushes are not replaceable and are permanently fitted inside a sealed plastic moulding which is part of the regulator. Valeo alternators could have their field wires cut into in that way though.
Some people could remove the belt, but many will find that belt also drives essential kit like power steering pumps or even engine water pumps.
Some people will be able to fit an adjustable voltage regulator, and turn it right down to 12.2v or so. Those are available for the slightly earlier (?) Bosch alternators, but not for mine, and not for Valeos or any other make as far as I know, unless your alternator uses an external regulator.
My original idea of using a 15.0v DC/DC converter OUGHT to be universal, and ought to prevent the alternator from putting out any current until the voltage drops. And that ought to be a universal solution that requires no knowledge of alternators and no modification of the car's electrical system in any way.
Converters are not efficient though. And apart from the inherent conversion inefficiency, there is also the fact that 10A at 15v (150w) will actually draw from the battery 12A at 12.5v (150w) PLUS whatever the converter's own power consumption is - say 10%. So to provide 10A at 15.0v will likely take 14A from the battery. (I know that my converter which provides 12.5A at 14v draws a full 15A from the battery at 12.5v.)