thinking about getting a mechman alt, are they worth the money and wait?

Wait is not too long... The made an oops on mine with the casing but it was corrected in a week's time...

Money, so far I can comment 100% yet but the alternator is def better than my stock... No problems staying solid @ 14.9v while riding around, cruising or otherwise... but so far idle is a little worrisome as I'm not even planning demos and it is what I would consider right now FAR worse than stock... I am still going through setup phase I would assume to make sure I have everything right before I judge that...

UPDATE: I re-did the setup of the avbm after my 35 minute ride home... Had the car running in the driveway with the accelerator pressed down to ~1500rpm and went clockwise like a mother... The car started out/was running at 14.7v like this and I adjusted it like madd... They do say it takes a few turns to get a change for "fine tuning" but it took more than a minute of turning before I saw a .1 change in voltage... It didn't seem to want to go beyond 14.8v when doing so, but originally the alternator was outputting 15.4v+ before I adjusted previously....

Is there something I did wrong???

your supposed to do it "cold start" say first thing in the morning and its best to have someone rev rpm's up to 2ooorpm and with high beams on/AC to simulate a load. Then you will have set it right. 14.7/14.8 should be that set point at cold start that way as the engine bay/ALT warms up the voltage will settle down around 14.4/14.6v

Aim at getting it at 14.4v AFTER the ride home at idle. As the day warms up there might be a slight drop in voltage but it should only be small difference, again because of the overall temp of the ALT.

Edited December 7, 201113 yr by crunkjuice1

your supposed to do it "cold start" say first thing in the morning and its best to have someone rev rpm's up to 2ooorpm and with high beams on/AC to simulate a load. Then you will have set it right. 14.7/14.8 should be that set point at cold start that way as the engine bay/ALT warms up the voltage will settle down around 14.4/14.6v

Aim at getting it at 14.4v AFTER the ride home at idle. As the day warms up there might be a slight drop in voltage but it should only be small difference, again because of the overall temp of the ALT.

ok... Well either way, I'm not gonna be seeing 14v at idle it seems....

I'm gonna redo the grounds again... What should I put on the connections in the engine bay to help from corrosion? electric grease or something like that??

your supposed to do it "cold start" say first thing in the morning and its best to have someone rev rpm's up to 2ooorpm and with high beams on/AC to simulate a load. Then you will have set it right. 14.7/14.8 should be that set point at cold start that way as the engine bay/ALT warms up the voltage will settle down around 14.4/14.6v

Aim at getting it at 14.4v AFTER the ride home at idle. As the day warms up there might be a slight drop in voltage but it should only be small difference, again because of the overall temp of the ALT.

ok... Well either way, I'm not gonna be seeing 14v at idle it seems....

I'm gonna redo the grounds again... What should I put on the connections in the engine bay to help from corrosion? electric grease or something like that??

You can use dielectric grease.

Good grounds is good, but wont solve your problem if that's your reasoning.

that box looks like a LED with some scoshe wire.. i cant belive that LED stays on all the time to " show that its installed correctly"

some times i wish i didnt care about my name.. cause it would be nice to make money off of a project box full of crap ..

i hope you get this issue worked out.

your supposed to do it "cold start" say first thing in the morning and its best to have someone rev rpm's up to 2ooorpm and with high beams on/AC to simulate a load. Then you will have set it right. 14.7/14.8 should be that set point at cold start that way as the engine bay/ALT warms up the voltage will settle down around 14.4/14.6v

Aim at getting it at 14.4v AFTER the ride home at idle. As the day warms up there might be a slight drop in voltage but it should only be small difference, again because of the overall temp of the ALT.

ok... Well either way, I'm not gonna be seeing 14v at idle it seems....

I'm gonna redo the grounds again... What should I put on the connections in the engine bay to help from corrosion? electric grease or something like that??

You can use dielectric grease.

Good grounds is good, but wont solve your problem if that's your reasoning.

Well, I saw one of my connections looked kinda icky... all white and toothpaste type shyt so I wanted to redo it anyway... Thanks for that one stef

that box looks like a LED with some scoshe wire.. i cant belive that LED stays on all the time to " show that its installed correctly"

some times i wish i didnt care about my name.. cause it would be nice to make money off of a project box full of crap ..

i hope you get this issue worked out.

yea, I just thought I could share my findings... lol

If you fill a box with crap I'd buy it....

Sounds like your car is idling right below the turn-on speed of this unit.

As you can't go with a smaller pulley there are ways to safely increase your idle speed enough to keep the unit charging.

On your throttle body there will be a throttle stop set screw, idle air bypass screw or both. The idle air screw may have a round plug covering it. You can use one of those to slightly increase your idle speed and correct your charging issue.

Your battery resting voltage is fine, 12.6-12.8 is good.

As long as your alternator is grounded directly to the battery and the battery has good grounds to the chassis there is no point in grounding your engine again.

Is there a better belt I can get for my car Eric? I don't mind putting more money into that if it may help... Like I said when I was first researching, I got the gates belt appropriate for my car...

Shogen, you do understand why your voltage is low at idle, and that unless you can spin the alternator faster at idle, nothing you do will fix it, correct?

Im not trying to sound condescending, or anything, but I just keep you talking about trying different things, which can certainly help stabilize your voltage, but it wont fix your situation.

The alt needs to be spun at a certain rpm to turn on and actually work, but your car idles below this turn on speed. So your alt is running when your driving down the road and you see 14v or whatever, but once your stopped and idling, the alt turns off and produces zero amperage, and your voltage drops to your batteries floating voltage. Once you take off again, rpm goes up, alt kicks on, and wallah 14v

Just trying to make the problem more clear if you didn't understand

Shogen, you do understand why your voltage is low at idle, and that unless you can spin the alternator faster at idle, nothing you do will fix it, correct?

Im not trying to sound condescending, or anything, but I just keep you talking about trying different things, which can certainly help stabilize your voltage, but it wont fix your situation.

The alt needs to be spun at a certain rpm to turn on and actually work, but your car idles below this turn on speed. So your alt is running when your driving down the road and you see 14v or whatever, but once your stopped and idling, the alt turns off and produces zero amperage, and your voltage drops to your batteries floating voltage. Once you take off again, rpm goes up, alt kicks on, and wallah 14v

Just trying to make the problem more clear if you didn't understand

Yea, I gotcha... I may not be asking the right questions... But I know smaller pulleys/belts/other random shit I don't know might be able to correct my idle issue... I'm just looking for the right answer... I'm not happy if I cannot get an improvement.... Obviously a product of this quality should have some tweaks to it.. At least I hope... Obviously I haven't been totally skunked but I hope maybe better battery support may stabilize or help my idle output...

Thanks for writing that though, I do not find it condescending in any way...

I do realize the things I am suggesting won't completely eradicate the issue but I'm looking to improve... Small pieces and hard work.... I'm willing to do it...

UPDATE LADIES:

Installed a new item in the car... its a crescendo audio bc3500 and its running at 2ohms!!! The car runs exactly the same as did the JL amplifier I previously had installed. While driving or rev to 1500-1700 rim the voltage stays at 14.6-14.9v !! Very stable but again idle suffers tremendously. :-( . I defense would like to beef up the electrical a bit more. Thinking of adding some oddyssey battery or batteries into the equation. And will order some 2/0 wire for alternator to rear.

Congrats on the Bc3500. Also you live in New Jersey I know for a fact they have a heavy import scene.. I would research about your car to see if anyone has a ECU flash out for it maybe you could find someone locally.. As long as you do your research and be smart a flash can only help. Just have to worry about warranty in some cases.

nice choice i have a 270 amp unit for my 1999 volkswagon passat

Sloop I've redone wiring. Checked connections but nothing has improved. Idle performance with the heater on level 2 and no music consistently drops below 12v into the high 11s. Either there is something wrong with the alternator or it does NOT have the performance it should have. I don't think I should be sitting on the accelerator at stop lights just to keep my heater and lights working like they should. My lights dim without audio being played as well. Above 1k is fine but I believe the alternator should produce 12.5-12.8v which should at least maintain the vehicle's system. Its almost borderline shut off feeling when I idle without music once the car is warm.

I am going to email Mechman about the situation and see where we can go from there. I am.not happy that I think I will now have to pay my mechanic once again for removal and installation.

Hopefully if worse comes to worse, mechman will offer a refund if this cannot be corrected,

Sloop I've redone wiring. Checked connections but nothing has improved. Idle performance with the heater on level 2 and no music consistently drops below 12v into the high 11s. Either there is something wrong with the alternator or it does NOT have the performance it should have. I don't think I should be sitting on the accelerator at stop lights just to keep my heater and lights working like they should. My lights dim without audio being played as well. Above 1k is fine but I believe the alternator should produce 12.5-12.8v which should at least maintain the vehicle's system. Its almost borderline shut off feeling when I idle without music once the car is warm.

I am going to email Mechman about the situation and see where we can go from there. I am.not happy that I think I will now have to pay my mechanic once again for removal and installation.

Hopefully if worse comes to worse, mechman will offer a refund if this cannot be corrected,

I don't see why you keep trying things and expect it to magically fix the alternator's turn on speed.

Do I agree that it's shitty the alt turns off and produces zero amperage at idle? Absolutely, I would be mad as well.

Get a refund, use an alternator that has a lower turn on speed (if it can be found).

Yea, it may have been some wasted energy on my part but I didn't want to have to go through months of trouble shooting with Mechman either.

I'm annoyed but depending on Mechman and the way they handle this situation, that may change my feelings. I have to keep my cool and hope thar Mechman makes thus right with little effort in my part.

This may have already been dicussed, but what about a different size pulley?

This may have already been dicussed, but what about a different size pulley?

I asked that earlier and mechman said they couldn't go smaller.

Yea, would've been ordered already if they had one available. :-(

Is there a design limitation?

If not you could find a machine shop and have them make you one and experiment to see what may happen.

Is there a design limitation?

If not you could find a machine shop and have them make you one and experiment to see what may happen.

I believe Mechman stated that the unit has the smallest pulley available on it. I don't know anywhere I could go to have all that done. I'm kind of at a loss right now, I was even going to get new batteries thinking they were the issue but they rest at 12.76v-12.8v every time I test them.

As I said under driving conditions the unit performs well for my power category, but under normal conditions of daily usage, idle suffers beyond safe levels. I couldn't even imagine what my car would run like in the summer.

Also, I'd probably lose my warranty on the unit by modifying it to work properly.

Ok, if all else fails and you get no help, let me know. I maybe able to make you something.

Ok, if all else fails and you get no help, let me know. I maybe able to make you something.

Thanks Neal... Let's see what happens during the week. I don't expect a response til Tuesday at the earliest, I do understand people have family and whatnot so I'm not rushing this to get done... We'll see...

Both Matt and I will be in the office tomorrow if you wish to call and discuss this unit.

We don't have a smaller pulley as going smaller will limit the belt contact and promote slip.

If you can find a pulley that is smaller feel free to try it out, we won't void your warranty unless you damage the unit, and unless it exceeds 21k rpm of rotor speed I don't see that happening without opening the case or improperly installing the pulley.

Some companies offer smaller pulleys to compensate for their underdrive crank pulley, check around and see what is smaller for your application.

The easiest alternative would be to have the idle speed increased 100rpm to compensate and have the alternator speed high enough to charge at idle in gear.

Both Matt and I will be in the office tomorrow if you wish to call and discuss this unit.

We don't have a smaller pulley as going smaller will limit the belt contact and promote slip.

If you can find a pulley that is smaller feel free to try it out, we won't void your warranty unless you damage the unit, and unless it exceeds 21k rpm of rotor speed I don't see that happening without opening the case or improperly installing the pulley.

Some companies offer smaller pulleys to compensate for their underdrive crank pulley, check around and see what is smaller for your application.

The easiest alternative would be to have the idle speed increased 100rpm to compensate and have the alternator speed high enough to charge at idle in gear.

Hey Eric, I wrote back to Matt already through email and he stated the same thing. The only thing I'd like to know is what output I'll be getting if adjusted lower? I'm only concerned with maintaining stability in the 500 range, I don't want/need like full output amperage at idle. Right now it seems that it isn't supplying enough and the car struggles for basic tasks (lights, heater, defogging)

Knowing the exact unit they're using and knowing this car like the back of my hand you have these options.... and they're not gonna be what you want to hear. That alternator is NOT designed for idle output in a camry. They idle too low. If I was at work, I would show you what alldata says for what our idle speed is in our cars. It's just not going to happen with that unit. You're wasting your time. Remember when I said our car idles at 2000 Alternator RPM?

Here is a power curve of our 320HP that is the same alternator you got for your vehicle.

Notice what it does at 2000? it does 39 amps.. what happens when you increase it 800 rpms? 8000*3 = you get over 100 amps... this car is not capable of hitting the sweet spot you need it to hit.

So your options are:

Deal with it.

Have them swap you out for a denso 180 amp unit. That unit WILL charge at idle and you WILL be happy with it.

I've ran the 320 in my car, i hated it. I ran the 180HP in my car and I loved it. I now run the XP and well, i love it like a fat kid loves cake.

You want idle from mechman? get the 180 amp denso.

Sorry to be blunt, but I want you to realize that you're wasting your time. you can't make more idle performance out of an alternator by replacing wires. Our car is a 3 alternator rpm to 1 engine rpm. want to know what the alternator does? look at that power curve and do (engine rpm) * 3 = alternator RPM.