Alternator Motorcraft or OEM Volkswagen

Depends on if you want the cheapest store brand they make or OEM quality Motorcraft. I’ve gone through enough cheap alternators in my life that I only mess with OEM anymore.

If you can get motorcraft, that is my recommendation.

Drove it for a day and the alternator crapped out. Installed a new one asap.

The alternator was dead (as expected), and was replaced with a used one that I sourced locally from junkyard.

The high rev voltage must be over 14 volts, so if not, then its the alternator. But make sure all connections clean and greased.

Go with an OEM unit by Motorcraft even if it's more expensive. Not somethin you want to do twice, learned this lesson with my Explorer. Threw on an aftermarket unit and it doesn't communicate with Ford's smart charging system correctly so it doesn't provide correct voltages as needed, therefore throwing a charging system warning constantly.

Mine has 69K miles. I've owned it for 4 years. Replaced the alternator and MAF sensor after failures. Keyless entry works only sporadically on the driver's door (lock switch already replaced - latch mechanism needs to be replaced, but for $$$).

What bugs me now is that it seems the alt doesn't quite put out. Dash light (at least the one I put under the dash since the one in-dash quit working) won't go out. Goes from bright to dim when the alt should excite.

It's a dice roll. I've had some success with them, but when I put a reman one in my Focus, it only lasted 2 weeks.

Upon only 3 days of ownership, the alternator went out due to the battery going bad, that took out the internal voltage regulator.