Alternator Bosch or OEM BMW
*Hella* is €216 to €380, *Bosch* is €212 to €432. Location: Germany, "*autodoc"* website
I've got the flickering lights so I'm going between the Denso reman and Bosch reman. Looks like the Bosch reman is done in house and the germans have pretty good engineering imo.
I recently replaced my alternator on one car w/a new Bosch unit. Cost about $200 and took me a couple of hours. Dealer cost just for the part was $700 and with book time they priced it out at over $1,400.
Bosch Alternators have 2 posts on them, the big one is for main battery ground, the smaller one is for the exciter or blue wire. When the cars ignition switch is turned on, the Dash light (led and diode) applies 12V+ to the coils to excite them, so the alternator can produce a charge. When the Alternator is producing current and voltage it goes to 13.5-14Volts.
The part # for the Alternator (Automatic trans) is 6H903016L and it's made by Bosh. [Europaparts](https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_2012_A4-Base-Sedan-20L-AT-Quattro/Alternator/48001649/06H903016L.html) sell's it for $499.95 (OEM).
Paid $1,214 out the door. Alternator... No experience with cars and don\u2019t feel comfortable installing myself. Based off local availability, I can\u2019t imagine an option I would\u2019ve been happier with. Of course it\u2019s overpriced, but I can justify the spend based off how seamless the experience was.
I tried to correct with a new and proper group size battery - it had an OE 140A Bosch alternator and starter with a 2016 El Cheapo battery that was one group size too small so I replaced the H5 with a new H6 group and all was good for a few days... I also replaced the starter just because I like to spend $ and wanted a clean slate as this a vehicle I intend to keep and drive daily as needed. The new battery/starter work great but I noticed right away that the voltage while at idle was now almost a full 2 volts lower than before changing any of the afore mentioned parts. I have a P3 dash vent gage that reads to 0.1V and I use a VOM plus VCDS so I know the P3 reads OK. Before changing any parts the P3 read 13.5 to 14.4 volts steady depending upon what accessories were on. After the H6 battery the P3 read 11.5 to 12.5 volts under the same driving conditions. I tried to get the OE alternator bench tested but that did not work so I just went with a new reman Bosch unit. No change in voltage with the new alt... So this past weekend the motor fired up just fine and the dash vent P3 gage display was 12.5V but while driving around town running errands the voltage kept dropping all the way down to 9.0V which caused the DSG to lock and basically leave me stranded miles from home. I will try to get the entire electrical system load tested this weekend but for now I just keep a tender on the batter at night as I do not drive much during the week nor do I commute. The tender keeps the battery at 13.0V reliably.
I just bought this car and I was about to replace the alternator belt but realized it’s not aligned. From this prospective the alternator is too far to the right
FWIW I bought an oreilly\u2019s remanufactured for my e34 a few years ago. It failed and was replaced twice in two years until I just bought the Bosch from FCP. No issues since.
Alternator and the battery are overpriced 2x (google replacement Varta battery and smth like Bosch alternator for your car on pkwteile or idealo).
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