My alternator was cooking my battery. It was charging at 17.5 volts! On the recommendation by some others on the M3 forum, I went to my local Advance Auto and got the Bosch 140amp to replace the Valeo 80amp.

I have to give props to AA. I ordered the alt at 8pm on Tuesday night and they had it shipped by 9:30am Wednesday morning to a Providence AA, since I work near there. I was going to drop off the car at this independent German auto mechanic.

The guy ordered two, just in case the 140amp didn't fit. I didn't even ask him for that, but he ordered the 80 & 140amp.

Anyway, my mechanic was busy so I drove home and did it myself. Really easy to do, less than an hour with a flashlight, friend and while trying to fight off friend's Mastiff trying to hump me every time I bent over. :confused

Oh, the weird thing is, when I ordered the alt, he showed the Valeo and Bosch models. We ordered the Bosch 140amp, but when I opened the box, it had Valeo casted onto the alt. Not that I care, but I thought that was odd.

Also, the core charge for the alt was $140. He let me return the 80amp for the core charge. Normally, they would adjust the core charge because I had an 80amp model.

$199 for the 140 amp alt with pulley and it fit perfectly.:redspot

Really easy to do, less than an hour with a flashlight, friend and while trying to fight off friend's Mastiff trying to hump me every time I bent over. :confused

:lol

Well, good thing you did it yesterday. Today is gonna be scheiss in the afternoon.

Sweet bro... did the 140-amp on mine about a month ago minus the bestiality... Took about the same time because I had the g/f helping me - for the life of me I couldn't get my hand wedged in there to hold the nut on the bottom mounting bolt with my paws. :stickoutt

Hell yeah!

I just mounted the other two snow tires just now. I'll have a snow tire review later this afternoon.:D
:lol

Well, good thing you did it yesterday. Today is gonna be scheiss in the afternoon.

lol:D

At least it was the smaller of the two dogs. He is only 120lbs, but the other one is around 160lbs. Good thing it wasn't a gang bang.

I probably would have finished quicker if I had remembered there was a bolt to hold!! I kept turning & turning & turning.

Sweet bro... did the 140-amp on mine about a month ago minus the bestiality... Took about the same time because I had the g/f helping me - for the life of me I couldn't get my hand wedged in there to hold the nut on the bottom mounting bolt with my paws. :stickoutt

lol:D

At least it was the smaller of the two dogs. He is only 120lbs, but the other one is around 160lbs. Good thing it wasn't a gang bang.

I probably would have finished quicker if I had remembered there was a bolt to hold!! I kept turning & turning & turning.

I did the same thing for a minute or two. :stickoutt

HAHA yea I was like is this going to come out and then realized there was a bolt there. I replaced my 80 amp with Jim's aka ninety5m3's 140 amp bosch alternator. He was nice enough to give it to me for free since he didnt need it. Its been working great for me. The coolest part about that alternator is that it has its own fan type thing attached to it, for cooling im guessing, so when it spins up you can hear it whine almost like a s/c:buttrock:evil2

Yeah, mine came with the fan thingy too.

The coolest part about that alternator is that it has its own fan type thing attached to it, for cooling im guessing, so when it spins up you can hear it whine almost like a s/c:buttrock:evil2