Swaggasaur Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 this is not a bashing post. but i need to figure out whats going on alright, so the story begins.. i purchased a mechman 220a alt maybe about 2 months ago. received it, installed it, was very happy about no voltage drop from a stock battery on 2kw about a week later, i go to start my car to go home from work. alts not charging. i ride all the way home on almost 11.5v call em up, matt says to send it in, i do it. call him back a couple days later(happened on the weekend). its a blown regulator. no charge, and sends it back to me for free. and of course it happens when i have 2 car shows both weeks its sent back. so i get it back, install it everything dandy. does excellent...for about 2 weeks. it goes out AGAIN today. did troubleshooting. nothing. i do have an XS power vcm on it. alt never charged above 15v, i ran it at 14.7 most of the time. i dont know what i should do, of course i have another car show coming this weekend, which i will not have my alt for AGAIN. i dont know whether its the VCM messing it up or what. they put the VCM on themselves and said it would be fine. everything is hooked up correctly. i really have no idea why this would happen twice. i know mechman will help me out and do everything they can. but im pissed because its been in the hands of UPS longer than ive had it in my car. cool story bro Quote BHE Wall Build TEAM DC Audio TEAM XS POWER1986 Monte Carlo KMC Nova's 20"4 DC XL's W/ PSI Recones2 DC 5k'sPioneer PRS 8010 Audio Technix 6 XS Power D3100's 1 XS Power D3400 Mechman 220a Alternator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MECHMAN Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 First thing to do is bypass the VCM to determine if it's a VCM issue or an alternator issue. Check ALL of the wiring going to the alternator and battery(ies). Were you fully charged before you installed the alternator? It's better to contact Matt- [email protected] or Eric- [email protected] for faster and more complete response than posting here. We will resolve this issue but it is far faster to do it via real email or a phone call to the shop. Thanks, Eric@mechman. Quote 1-888-MECHMAN www.Mechman.com [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyDontWantMusic Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 why would you bother upgrading the alternator if you're only running a stock battery, and 2kw anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swaggasaur Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 why would you bother upgrading the alternator if you're only running a stock battery, and 2kw anyway? bc my stock alt was doing 63 amps. why run another battery if it wont be charged properly? and ill be upgrading eventually anyway Quote BHE Wall Build TEAM DC Audio TEAM XS POWER1986 Monte Carlo KMC Nova's 20"4 DC XL's W/ PSI Recones2 DC 5k'sPioneer PRS 8010 Audio Technix 6 XS Power D3100's 1 XS Power D3400 Mechman 220a Alternator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4killer_ Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 was your battery charged before you put it in the car? like the mechman rep aslo asked above... if you put a dead or underhcharged battery on a new alt, it WILL kill the alt. Sometimes the bat goes too.. seen it a couple of times myself with the alts anyway. make sure ur bat is charged up first Quote Setup: 2010 Hyundai Elantra Factory Unit via 4 chan NVX LOC Excessive Amperage "H/O" Alt Xs D3400/ Xs XP3000 Big 3. 2 Runs of +, 2 Runs of - DD M3b and 2 12" AQ HDC4s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnderLoK Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 (edited) #1 take your batt in to get tested. If it has a bad cell or the like it can cause the alt to be loaded constantly which will cause it to overheat and burn up. You more than likely wouldn't notice it with a stock alt because stock alts can take a monster beating since they produce far less heat. Regulators generally go up (in my experience) because the alt is overheating. It could be your placement, a bad battery (read BAD not undercharged), it could be poor ventilation, it could be that you are beating the hell out of it, or it could just be a batch of shotty parts (no offense intended but it happens). The Iraggi's I used to run burned up twice and blew up once (rotor exploded). The two times they fried it was 90 out, I drove home from work, and ran my system full tilt for part of a song and they went up like a match. Never had a problem with my Mechman units (again not saying this has any bearing on your issue, just saying). was your battery charged before you put it in the car? like the mechman rep aslo asked above... if you put a dead or underhcharged battery on a new alt, it WILL kill the alt. Sometimes the bat goes too.. seen it a couple of times myself with the alts anyway. make sure ur bat is charged up first When people talk about a "dead battery" killing an alt they aren't talking about one that's sitting at 12.1v... They are talking about one with a dead cell causing the alt to constantly charge. Is it possible? Sure, anything is, but an alts job is to charge and when you're running an alt for 2 weeks and then it dies I fail to see how an undercharged battery would cause this especially when you consider how many people leave their headlights on, jump a dead battery, and do just fine. Edited June 6, 2011 by UnderLoK Quote If at first you do not succeed, you are doing it wrong! -ARSCheck out my walled TBSS build over here4 Fi Team 18s on 2 Cactus K9 DS18 doors on 2 MBQ 1Ks, Vifa pillars on a STL4.500 Pioneer X8500 6 XS Power D7500, 1 3400S Second Skin 2 270a Mechman Alts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunkjuice1 Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Even though you spent money on VCM you might want to skip that and try mechman AVBM harness. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MECHMAN Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 The AVBM has proven to be a reliable product and has much less that can fail. The alternator is being sent in for testing. Failed VCM or battery can wipe out regulators quickly, so we will be testing the unit to determine the failure and going from there. This is something that is extremely rare and I expect there to be a problem elsewhere that will be found in the near future. Quote 1-888-MECHMAN www.Mechman.com [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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