On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:20:39 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Andy Dingley wrote:
Lucas alternators are rubbish. Fit a Bosch.

They're often identical from the '80s.

Basically, avoid the old Lucas designs (especially the ubiquitous ACR).
The more recent stuff was nothing like as badly designed.

Bosch build quality was rubbish when they were supplying it to Rover.
There was an attitude that "the Brits would accept anything" that they'd
never have tried on with VW. Alternators weren't too bad, but the
starter solenoids were ghastly (I did one of the test rigs). As for the
actual factory location for stuff from the '90s it's pretty hard to
tell, but generally anything that looks like Lucas was obsolete and
anything that looks like Bosch was well-intentioned but shoddy.