Kitaka

I got the intermittent red screen about the Alternator failing last week and ignored it. I paid the price for ignoring this the following week while out and about. Dead battery for me.. Looking into the engine compartment made me cringe thinking how will I'll remove the alternator.

After looking under the car I realized that there might be merit to the rumor that the voltage regulator is typically the problem 80% of the time and on some vehicles it can be replaced without removing the alternator. I ignored this item when I first purchased the car and was doing "maintenance".

Well, let it be known that the VR can indeed be replace from under the vehicle, without removal of the alternator. It's a easy job if you have the tools and ability to safely raise the vehicle. Got the part on sale ($45), took an hour to complete.

I'm a happy camper. Now onto the other (module related) issues!

Daus2

alright so I may or may not be having the same problem, I am getting very inconsistent voltages as low as 12.9 when under load but idles at 14.2, the 12.9 happens when engine is colder although gets much better when warmer, car also misfires as a result and causes delay in my camshaft magnets and sensors to read accurately and adjust on time, on my icarsoft mb v3.0 scanner, I picked up 6 faults codes related to that and maybe this one might also have something to do with it but the front right DCM detected a fault "short to ground on mirror heater circuit" which i'm not sure has something to do with it, but all of this is ending up causing my car to behave randomly although the most consistent symptom is engine vibration when revving, it does not like the cold i'll say that. I've replaced a lot of things prior to this whether it was from the dealer or FCP euro, another note, my ambient air temp sensor keeps malfunctioning, it reads but it keeps producing faults for it no matter how many times it gets replaced from dealer OR FCP euro. Do you think it's module or VR related issue? or even ECM?? Mind you this car ran absolutely perfect when I reconnected the brand new AGM battery after a whole week of working on it then the issues progressively came back as I was driving to get the electronics resynchronized so all mechanical faults have been ruled out, another thing I noticed, the intake manifold is still fine but I am getting a "charge flap malfunctioning cylinder 1" fault on my ECM as well. Camshaft position values deviates from set value faults, exhaust camshaft adjustment faults and yet the timing on the car is accurate and was able to check the timing chain for slack and there was absolutely none! Mind you the car runs better when warm and does not misfire and voltages stay higher and idles smooth. only at idle, when revving it is not good.

nd-photo.nl

I made a video for replacing the voltage regulator on my CLS55, hopefully it might be of use for the M156 engine