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03 F450 alternator issues

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so we are in a fight with the local dealership right now, and i am looking for some insight on a situation.

 

 

*long post warning*

 

 

we service a fleet of ambulances, and the one that has had the most trouble lately is an 03 F450, 6.0 of course. for the longest time, it has been having an intermittent stall, power loss, or some form of low power concern. it has been in to this one dealer about six times, each time its an NPF. they slapped a VDR on it once, but according to the tech that worked on it, "it didnt get anything to tell me whats wrong" thats bullshit, but thats another story.

 

about two months ago, the truck had a primary alternator fail (this unit only has about 32k on it, its not run as often as some we have serviced) which of course overtaxed the secondary unit. it went in on a hook to the dealer, and they replaced the primary alternator only, i am fairly certain they did it under the extended warr, with deductable.

 

two weeks later, the truck starts having a charging issue again, after running some tests, and per the fleet managers request, i replaced the secondary alternator with a ford unit.

 

heres were it gets interesting:

 

the truck went in to that same dealer for the same low power and stalling concern for the 7th time last week. i get a call from the fleet manager, pissed off cause he is telling me we installed the wrong alternator on the vehicle, which is doing damage. i call the dealer, and after an hour of being jerked around, i finally get the tech on the phone, and he explains to me that the truck is setting a hard fault P1148. he also tells me that i installed the wrong part number alternator, and that they have to install a new unit because this one is the incorrect one, causing problems.

 

i spent an hour on the phone with Motorcraft, the ford dealer i bought the alternator from (different than the one that the truck is at, we've had conflicts in the past at this particular one) and the dealer the truck is at now. the truck, according to the build information, was built with a 3C3Z10346CA secondary alternator.

 

we installed a 6C2Z10346EA, which is what came up from my parts guy as the correct alternator. doing some number crossing, it crosses over to the 3C3Z alternator, its the 06 replacement of an 03 PN or some crap like that. it also comes up on motocrafts catalog to be for an 06 only E and F series powerstroke.

 

however, supposedly my parts guy is telling me that the 6C2Z alternator is the right one for that truck, after checking the cross references. i come up with different numbers, but they are adimant that we installed the right unit.

 

bottom line is: i would like a second opinion as to who i need to resolve this with. either i was sold the wrong part, or the other dealer is trying to pad up a warr. job with a crapload of CP work (this dealer has done this alot in the past, their techs love to talk trash about independents)

 

i havent heard if the truck is back yet, but i did manage to tell the fleet manager to let me fix the truck after it gets back the 8th time in for the same complaint /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif

 

and, if someone doesnt mind, can i get an OASIS on this unit? supposedly it had about 47hrs of work on it when it was brand new, and im curious.

 

1FDXF47P13EB39127

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Joey, this application is a touchy one. You should have a 3C3Z10346CA installed on the bottom and F81Z10346DA on the top.This is for the 120amp. that your vin. shows.

The application also shows a 140amp. option with 6C3Z10346BA on the top and F81Z10346DA going on the bottom. My suggestion would be to get the engineering #'s off of the alt. that are in the vehicle now and verify that the correct #'s are where they are supposed to be.

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HVBOM showed it was built with the following:

 

6C3Z10346BA upper, 3C3Z10346CA lower. however, when he pulled it, it also showed the truck was originally built with a 120A upper only, the other numbers were in a footnote or some crap like that.

 

i dont have the original unit, it was sent back as a core about a month ago. what gets me is that i pulled codes after the repair, and found none in the system. they swear that the alternator was throwing a hard code immediately, and that is the cause of the driveability issue.

 

the assholes havent called me yet, but i am sure they will.

 

thanks fellers

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Joey, this application is a touchy one. You should have a 3C3Z10346CA installed on the bottom and F81Z10346DA on the top.This is for the 120amp. that your vin. shows.

The application also shows a 140amp. option with 6C3Z10346BA on the top and F81Z10346DA going on the bottom. My suggestion would be to get the engineering #'s off of the alt. that are in the vehicle now and verify that the correct #'s are where they are supposed to be.

my one question: is there any difference in the units other than the amperage? do they take the same regulator? as far as i could tell, there are only about three part numbers for the lower alternators, the amperage being the only difference. the clock position is the main differences between the upper and lower ones, at least that i could tell on the few we have done.

 

i really want to go smack the crap out of someone at ford right now. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/banghead.gif

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haha.....

 

 

trucks still down there........alternator didnt fix it. from what i gathered, they have replaced the turbo twice now. the fleet manager is getting royally pissed off (rightfully so, a truck that cost about 125 grand is basically useless to them, cause it usually stalls or loses power on a call) and is looking for another cab/chassis to remount onto.

 

 

i got a feeling this is gonna be a long week!

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