It's not the most robust design John. The alternator is IMO undersized, and has to work much harder than it should, doesn't put out enough at idle to keep the systems running.

My '91 died Christmas Eve, in a blizzard, on a freeway between small towns in Michigan. It had about 60,000miles on it, was over $75,000 with the luxury tax, and the $39 brush failure gave no dash light nor warning before systems started to fail and lights dim, ... and of course you can't turn off many of them. So my expensive car spent its evening being pushed off of the road by a $15,000 POS State Police car, ... that could charge its own battery.

Fortunately, an upgrade to the later-style Bosch with 120amp or more charging, gives the low-RPM output to not short-cycle batteries, and is well worth the swap. I wish I had known this when my '91 was new.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff