This alternator service/swap 150a to 90a was done as and experiment since I decided I didn’t needed the big bad 150a for my needs and could possibly achieve some very small MPG gains w a 90a. Now 3 years later I can say there’s no noticeable difference...
FYI the alternator on my 4-cyl AHU TDI engine is the same as the ones on the VR6 engines and IIRC the 93-95 5-cyl models as well. ?The two are a direct swap physically. Later 2001-2003 models might have a different two pin plug style (oval vs. square) but this is something easily remedied by sourcing the correct plug (ubiquitous and STD on a basically all VW models (Jetta, Passat, Golf, Etc) in a variety of places on the wiring harness pre 2000) and replacing yours with that—slickly by re-pinning but functionally the same via shadetree methods by cutting the OE plug and installing the correct one to match the alt via your preferred method, soldering or quick butt to butt wire coupler.?
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150a alternator on the top, 90a on the bottom?
Brushes still functional with normal wear but down to the last 25%. Bentley wear limit is 0.10mm iirc so always to go still technically but as they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…”
New brush pack on L
New brushes installed?
Part number for reference?
?Post is copied from my recent blogpost:
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Justin
2000 EVW 1.9TDI Syncro 5-spd501k mi :-)
Justin Soares
