Hi Guys

It appears the voltage regulator has gone on my 2003 TL. It means I'm without wheels and have to search locally for a replacement so I was wondering if the regulator, (or alternator if I have to buy the whole thing), is the same on other models/years? There are a few people wrecking them around here but not 2003s. Theres a 99 and a 2002 reasonably close.
The other option is to buy a new one but I'm a bit short at the moment and just got quoted $120 or $170 ex Sydney from a Mitsu dealer.

Any help would be appreciated

Look at the alternator and see if yoy can read the make and model of the alternator and regulator.
If it is a Bosch you can look up on line the regulator model for the different years of Magna.

THanks Max. The alternator is a Bosch, but I cant make out the model. Its not much help but it looks like it starts F005. I removed the regulator and its Bosch 14v4 9190067050. Nothing turned up online for that part #.
I saw one retailer selling replacement alternators saying it fitted all magnas from 96-04. Not likely they are all exactly the same but maybe close enough?

I'm assuming its the regulator because I was seeing 17V across the battery. Could it be anything else?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RE60-Alternator-Voltage-Regulator-RE-60-Bosch-style-/111190797753?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item19e37cedb9

Look for RE 60 on the regulator, I can't remember if they are labelled with that though.

Put a voltmeter on the battery, then bring the revs up slowly. Should be stable at about 14.4 volts, if it goes up it is stuffed. Sounds like yours is dead.

Any alternator from a 3.5L third gen Magna should be a direct drop in, provided it is a Bosch.

More likely RE72 I think, suits Bosch BXM1348, F 005 A00 048.

OEM MR927264 for ALT NO.F005A00029,F005A00048

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/REGULATOR-BOSCH-RE72-9191067059-NEW-BOSCH-/400242360419?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5d304dc063

How many K's you got on her? I'm at 160 000 on original unit.

Yes its RE72. Same regulator but different plug socket. Thanks for the help & links guys, I now know more than I expected or wanted to know about alternators and regs, lol
TW2005, the car has 275,000 on it, so no surprise things are going wonky.

Update: I picked up a RE72 from the local Auto lecky ($65) which is luckily in walking distance and fit it without any difficulties yesterday. But to my surprise, and the sparky's when I called him, I was still seeing 17-18 volts across the battery. Also Battery was fully charged last night, but dead this morning when I was going to drive it to him (with reg disconnected). Put another battery in and drove there, and almost boiled the battery! They say its an internal short in the alternator and I'll have to change it. I'm trying to find a reasonably priced one close by.
I couldn't work out how the battery was still seeing charging voltage with the regulator disconnected, but it still had another wire running directly (?) to the battery, and with the internal short effectively grounding the thing I was giving the battery full unregulated alt output! I know know if it ever happens again to disconnect the single large wire as well. Much learnt and hopefully I havent damaged the two batterys.

Alternators have a diode pack in them. As it has 3 phase power, there are 3 small diodes to feed DC to the regulator, the other 6 are large power diodes that feed DC to the electrics. (At least that is how it was years ago when I last studied them in detail).

If any of the diodes fail, you will get no output, unregulated voltage or a mix of DC and AC depending on where the failure is. Batteries don't like AC, as you now know.

If you are buying a second hand alternator, get them to give you a guarantee on it that it is functional. Wreckers will often mark an alternator with paint to make sure if you come back, it is with the one they sold you. lol

I looked for a TS alternator at a wreckers, had to go back twice as neither worked. I ended up buying a reconditioned one. (Which failed too, but it was fixed under warranty.)

Yes its RE72. Same regulator but different plug socket. Thanks for the help & links guys, I now know more than I expected or wanted to know about alternators and regs, lol
TW2005, the car has 275,000 on it, so no surprise things are going wonky.

Update: I picked up a RE72 from the local Auto lecky ($65) which is luckily in walking distance and fit it without any difficulties yesterday. But to my surprise, and the sparky's when I called him, I was still seeing 17-18 volts across the battery. Also Battery was fully charged last night, but dead this morning when I was going to drive it to him (with reg disconnected). Put another battery in and drove there, and almost boiled the battery! They say its an internal short in the alternator and I'll have to change it. I'm trying to find a reasonably priced one close by.
I couldn't work out how the battery was still seeing charging voltage with the regulator disconnected, but it still had another wire running directly (?) to the battery, and with the internal short effectively grounding the thing I was giving the battery full unregulated alt output! I know know if it ever happens again to disconnect the single large wire as well. Much learnt and hopefully I havent damaged the two batterys.

Thanks for the info, I'm looking at preventative maintenance and replacing stuff before it fails.