[bigwiki]

Recently, both of headlights went at the same time and I noticed my interior lights go brighter and dimmer occasionally. Check the voltage at the battery terminal with engine idling. The voltage jumps between 15V to 17V occasionally. Looks like the voltage regulator fails again. The Meyle Voltage regulator (made in Spain) is only 4 months old. Dame. I email bmaparts.com. Wonder if I can get refund on this? I am going to use Bosh voltage regulator from now on.

 

[ronw123w124]

Avoid Meyle parts at all costs, they're crap.

 

[afrasay]

hahahahaha!!! You beat me to it Ronnie.

 

[JW560sec]

Where exactly is the VR on these cars?

 

[augapfel]

It's held to the back of the alternator by 2 phillips head screws.

 

[bigwiki]

Where exactly is the VR on these cars?

For 93 300e 2.8, remove the black plastic cover at the back of the alternator. The VR is inside.

 

[christopher1959]

Been thru that many times with MBZ and Bimmers,,,, the ONLY VR to use is a OE Bosch...it will last for years just like the original did, because it is the ORIGINAL!

 

[JW560sec]

Thanks for the info. I know is that the same for the 126's also?

 

[bigwiki]

Finally got the time to replace the Meyle voltage regulator today. The Meyle VR was made in Germany (not Spain, sorry). Put in the new Bosch VR (made in India) and no more voltage problem.

Called bmaparts.com support. They said the part has one year warranty and let me return it for credit. Great.

 

[Real1shepherd]

Finally got the time to replace the Meyle voltage regulator today. The Meyle VR was made in Germany (not Spain, sorry). Put in the new Bosch VR (made in India) and no more voltage problem.

Called bmaparts.com support. They said the part has one year warranty and let me return it for credit. Great.

Let's get something straight about Meyle. They are a very shrewd German owned company that has their parts made in: India, Turkey and China....for the most part. Because of a quirk in the law, they can stamp "Germany" on their parts. Their claim is that they beef up some parts to compensate for OE weaknesses. I have no doubt that some of their parts hold up OK, but the BMW crowd for example, especially their Neon Boy Racers, are not having good luck with Meyle suspension parts.

It's a price point, driven by smoke and mirrors. Most people think they are buying 'German parts' on the cheap. But if you think about the price of Meyle against like Lemforder...how can you expect, given their usual level of perfection & quality, to get cheap 'German parts' in the first place??? It's an oxymoron...you're chasing after something that doesn't exist.

Kevin

 

[94Wagenmeister]

Thanks for the info. I know is that the same for the 126's also?

Yep - just did the VR on my SE. A 'wear item' that will be replaced many times before the alternator will be. Also, as I found out unfortunately, a VR failure is one of the few things that will stop you in your tracks with the W126 - often in traffic... I can't make a blanket statement that all meyle stuff is crap, but many of us have sad similar experiences and now simply avoid the brand (if possible). If it's the only thing available to get back on the road, by all means use it! But, as always, caveat emptor!

 

[jonbobshinigin]

I had the same issue with a KAE Voltage Regulator...it lasted about 1 year at which point I was convinced that my alternator was dead..surely it couldn't be the voltage regulator right? Wrong...I swapped with one I just got for my W123 and have been driving on it since. The new one is a genuine Bosch.

 

[[email protected]]

VR replaced

Thanks for the info on how to replace the VR.
Removed the the battery cable.
Removed the two nuts that hold on the two lead wires on the right.

Toughest part of the job was getting the plastic housing off the bosch alternator... three small phillips screws, broke off a tab, then the actual housing cracked in a couple of places. But it still held. Had to use a pick and flat-head screw driver to get it off!

The old VR came out quickly, so much so that I had a problem remembering how the new one should go on. I just made sure that the single metal prong on the left made contact with the new VR's small metal tab. Two screws and it was on. Re-assembly was the reverse....

When I turned on the car, everything seemed brighter, but maybe that was just because I was mostly working in the dark.

The brushes on the old Bosch VR were very worn. It was made in Great Britain. The brushes on the new Bosch VR were nearly twice as long. It was made in India.

 

[bigwiki]

Fred,

If you check the battery terminals with a meter, the voltage should be 14.4 to 14.5V when the engine is running with a good VR. When my VR was bad, the voltage was 15 to 17V.

Yes, removing the stubborn alternator plastic housing is the hardest part of the job. Otherwise the job is a really easy DIY.

 

[latief]

So somehow I missed this thread.....

last week a installed one of these in my car....it worked fine....two days ago or so i started seeing a flicker in my cluster lights...i took the car to autozone, they told me the charging system is fine....but i was not convinced. installed my 17 year worn-out bosch part again.....it solved the problem...this is going to be returned for a new bosch part,,no more junk for me....avoid at any cost.....

 

[Real1shepherd]

So somehow I missed this thread.....

last week a installed one of these in my car....it worked fine....two days ago or so i started seeing a flicker in my cluster lights...i took the car to autozone, they told me the charging system is fine....but i was not convinced. installed my 17 year worn-out bosch part again.....it solved the problem...this is going to be returned for a new bosch part,,no more junk for me....avoid at any cost.....

This is the continuing story with non-OE junk. Even Bosh has slipped on some of their parts-like plug wires, I hear. I'm planning on a Bosh dist cap & rotor soon...hope these are still OK. At least when the ex did have the car serviced, the dealer always used OE parts. I've not found any non-OE parts yet on 'er...knocks on wood.

Kevin

 

[latief]

welcome back Kevin, haven't seen you post here in a while ....

yes, no more meyle anything for me ......

 

[Real1shepherd]

welcome back Kevin, haven't seen you post here in a while ....

yes, no more meyle anything for me ......

Yeah, sorry about that. I had a PC failure on my new super PC...turns out it was purely a Vista Premium bug. I just had Windows 7 installed and LOVE IT! Anyway, that's just put me further away from EPC, because they don't even support Vista. I'm having my old PC cleaned out (uses XP), just to access EPC....my subscription is running down and I've never even been able to access their site.

So....my PC time as been at a low ebb...glad to be back (sort of anyway).

Kevin

 

[latief]

Not to hijack the Meyle thread, but I have EPC on my windows 7 laptop, and on my vista laptop....make sure you have all the updates for Java.....download a Java package if you don't have one,,,,it works perfectly here....:thumbsup:

 

[Real1shepherd]

Not to hijack the Meyle thread, but I have EPC on my windows 7 laptop, and on my vista laptop....make sure you have all the updates for Java.....download a Java package if you don't have one,,,,it works perfectly here....:thumbsup:

I tried that....even went down to 32bit Java (new) and no success. The EPC folks told me they don't support Vista....I don't know how you're doing it.

Kevin