Originally Posted by DoctorOk humour me but what difference does the different amps make in terms of the system?
Does a higher amp alternator require more/less charging time or what exactly does it do differently compared to a lower amp alternator? Does one put more strain on the system or motor than another?
Ok, so older cars had smaller alternators, sometimes less than 50 amperes. Newer cars as small as even a sentra can have alt's up to 140 amperes. Newer cars have a lot more electrical components ie power everything, big a/c units very bright lights and electrical nannies and safety features. All of these things require a bigger alt that can handle the load. A bigger alt won't burn out as quickly and is less of a drain on your electrical system as it's capacity is much larger and therefore doesn't have to work as hard.
Alternator's, especially in newer vehicles mainly, are controlled more and more by the computer depending on engine and electrical load requirements within the vehicle. But because alt's vary the workload depending on these things, they generally don't have to work to a capacity greater than 50 or 60 percent, as long as u don't have massive stereo upgrades that is.
A bigger alternator wouldn't necessarily cause more strain on the motor because they don't usually run at full load. If, however, you were to run a 70A alt side by side with a 140A alt in the same enigine, the bigger alt would put more of a strain on your system. What this would equate to in power loss, if any, I am not quite sure.
Upgrading your alt to a larger unit generally is a good thing and there should be no worries of losing any of the almighty HORSEPOWER!
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