Alternator OEM FORD or OEM BMW

Did they put in an OEM ford alternator? Fords switched to their “smart charging” system and its a little more complicated than your average alternator diagnosis.

The Taurus alternator and 2 speed e-fan come to mind as the two most common parts that people pickup from junkyards and slap them on to their cars.

Had the same issue with my -07 Volvo v50 (it has a ford engine). Swapped the alternator and the problem was gone.

I replaced the alternator on my Windstar last month. Disconnect the wires, remove 3 bolts and lift it out. Takes like 10 minutes or less.

The alternator I have on my 3.0 Ford Ranger does over 130 at idle and 300 at 2,000 engine RPM. It's the same size as factory, just custom built for $550 for the truck since I use it for car audio competition.

Just sold mine to a friend... owned this one for 5 years, put 40+ thousand miles on it, and it needed nothing except for an alternator, and battery. It was a great car for me. Never let me down, drove, and sounded great...

Newer ford alternators essentially “talk” to the pcm. Cheap aftermarket alternators do not do well on these cars. Replace the alternator with a better quality alternator

My 540i at 141k started eating me alive, Alternator blew up

I had one during college... For a V6 it wasn't particularly quick and handled a lot bigger than it was. In three years it ate five alternators and the intake runner control box was notorious for failing (killing what little power it had).

I had a Cougar (same underpinnings) and mine went through alternators like candy. I'm sure a better-designed aftermarket version would probably take care of it though.