Voltage regulater

[Stvgordon]

Got a 98 Jetta TDI,
Voltage regulater failed. Rebuilt alternator had trouble finding a regulator so I put in aftermarket. So when car starts after about 3 seconds gages stop working, radio goes black.... I’ve checked and rechecked and rechecked everything. Before I start tearing everything out again and order parts.... what’s going on?

 

[My_name_is_Rob]

Sounds almost like a bad ground to me. Likely somewhere from your battery if I had to guess. I just experienced voltage regulator issues on my alternator as well, but fortunately I haven't directly experienced this problem.

 

[Mongler98]

return that junk part you got and buy an OEM, or rebuild yours. trust me on this, you have a 20-25% chance of that part working for more than 80K miles.
Also you do have a bad ground for your issue.

there is a thread on rebuilding them here, do a seach

 

[CoolAirVw]

Once you go Bosch you never go back.

 

[AndyBees]

Check the voltage while the engine is running ... it may be over charging. I've seen them rolling out over 18 volts causing the cluster to totally shut-down.

But, obviously, as others have said, take that thing back while hopefully it is still under warranty!