Rotating Electrics Got You in a Spin?

A growing list of rotating electrics has given a whole new meaning to the idea of taking vehicles for a spin. With a simple whirr or hum, they’re now powering everything from mirrors to door locks, windows, seats, wipers, and even trunk lids.

A typical 2002 passenger vehicle incorporates an average of 19.8 electric motors, while 2009 model year designs are expected to have an average of 23.2, according to research conducted by Frost and Sullivan, a U.S.-based consulting group.

But they’re adding up to yet another challenge for alternators – a rotating electric of another sort. After all, these power sources are already facing demands from an ever-growing list of electric options emerging on today’s vehicles, ranging from heated seats and navigation systems to DVD players.

HOT ALTERNATORS

Robert Bosch, for example, recently responded to the demands of the tuner market by unveiling a high-output alternator that delivers more than 250 amps to tricked-out Honda Civics and Accords loaded with A/V components that would rival any rec room.

“Years ago, the options list was the radio and the colour,” observes Bob Sinclair of Ontario-based Dixie Electric. “There are more and more options going on these vehicles every day.”

While off-the-shelf alternators have kept up with the power demands of typical cars, quadrupling the output of their predecessors from the 1960s, they are also facing additional stress because of their shrinking designs, says Joe Rinaldi, president of Armature DNS.

That means earlier failures.

Out of the top 10 alternators on Dixie Electric’s popularity list, for example, eight are designed for vehicles built after 1990. “I got to go down to Number 12 before I find one (to fit a vehicle built) before 1980,” Sinclair says, blaming the failures of newer models on temperature-related stresses. This year, the CS130D, used for late-model Chevrolets, actually displaced the popular 10SI as the company’s top seller.

Still another challenge involves the availability of parts for late-model designs, says Cameron Young, Robert Bosch’s national sales manager. “The whole key thing is the cores are harder to get hold of. Cores are being scooped up from all different ends of the rebuild supply chain.”

It’s a matter of supply and demand. While GM alternators once lasted a decade or more between redesigns, they’ve recently been reworked every two to four years. There just aren’t as many of the newer models to go around.

Meanwhile, starters are facing stresses of their own.

Today’s designs are turning four to five times faster than their predecessors, leading to increased wear, Rinaldi adds, suggesting that life spans of North American models have dropped as much as 30% when compared to those built in the early 1980s.

“We’ve seen the industry go toward smaller, lighter units,” he says of the source of late-model failures. “The length of the brushes, the size of the contacts–everything is getting smaller.”

WINDOW MOTORS WINDING UP

Meanwhile, window motors have become one of the most prolific rotating electrics on vehicles built since the 1990s.

“Over 83% of vehicles come standard with power windows,” says Siemens VDO product manager Dave Maclay. And many of them are requiring their first repairs after seven to 10 years of duty.

The biggest shift in the technology itself has been in the move to use plastic housings, which cut weights in half, he says. (They now weigh about a pound.) “There are also cable-operated regulators as opposed to the old gear-style regulators. They’re quieter operating and you can make them move a little bit faster.”

The latter attribute is important in the option of an automatic driver’s side window that will roll all the way down with a single push of a button.

FAN MOTORS SPINNING UP DEMAND

One of Siemens VDO’s most popular fan motors is designed for Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler minivans built from 1993 to 1995, and product manager Rick Wagner links those failures to the way the vehicles are used.

“A lot of minivans are used hard, they’re used a lot during the day, sitting in traffic,” he says. That’s why he expects the associated fan motor to hold the company’s top selling position for another year or two, only to be displaced by models for minivans built between 1996 and 2000.

In general, fan motors on import models tend to last longer than their domestic competitors, he says, referring to selected import models with life spans stretching as long as 12 years. A model for Honda Civics built from 1990 to 1993 is still one of the company’s top 10 sellers, he says as proof of their longevity. Some of the domestic motors can fail in as little as eight years.

Still, few domestic fan motors have failed as readily as those found in 1998-2002 Dodge Intrepids and Chrysler Concordes, which already account for one of the company’s most popular replacement designs.

“We make a fan assembly for the 1993 to 1998 (Intrepids and Concordes), and that is not as popular,” Wagner says, noting that he blames the failure of later models on a 1998 redesign that restricted the flow of air.

While the technology behind electric motors is relatively basic, the parts are still becoming more technologically advanced, Frost and Sullivan adds in its study on fractional horsepower electric motors. “For instance, electronically commutated or brushless motors, though more expensive than other motors, are beginning to be used in limited numbers, offering greater energy efficiency, longer life, and lower noise.”

Electronic fan motor designs will begin to replace their magnetic counterparts in the next year, and emerge in the aftermarket within three to five years, Wagner suggests, referring to the efficiency of the models. “They run at a higher wattage, but they’re lighter,” he says. “And they emit less heat because of the electronics.”

Meanwhile, the market for blower motors could also be set to rise thanks to the growing number of vehicle lines that have added automatic temperature controls in the last four years, Wagner says. “That motor runs all the time unless you turn it off.”

For its part, Siemens is also looking to capitalize on the frustrations that can accompany the installation of fan motors, offering a complete assembly – a welcome fix for any technician who has ever had a brittle fan shroud disintegrate in his hands. (The company suggests that installers can save 20 to 30 minutes by replacing an entire fan assembly instead of fighting with an individual motor.)

The wheels of change, it seems, just keep on turning.

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THE POWER STRUGGLE: 42-VOLT SYSTEMS STILL SITTING ON HORIZON

It is, perhaps, one of the automotive industry’s greatest power struggles.

As automakers continue to cram a growing number of electric options into vehicles — and continue to promise everything from improved emission controls to “by-wire” technology that will update mechanical and hydraulic systems–they have yet to roll out the power that will make their promises a reality.

Vehicle power requirements have reportedly risen by more than 50% in the last 30 years, yet they’re still drawing electricity from the 12-volt batteries that were introduced by General Motors in 1955. And while an update in the form of 42-volt systems has long been promised, initial roll-outs continue to be delayed.

“The market’s just not ready for it yet,” says John Shea of Delphi, referring to the systems that will be built around 36-volt batteries. “We’re able to do it. The question is, when do you need to convert a vehicle’s architecture? That answer isn’t really clear.”

Today’s 14-volt systems can handle current power demands, he adds. “It’s still not to the point where you need to reconfigure everything.”

More than 50 automakers and suppliers have worked through MIT’s Consortium on Advanced Automotive Electrical/Electronic Systems and Components since the mid-1990s in a bid to develop standards for the additional power.

Toyota became the first company to unveil a 42-volt production car in its 2002 Crown Royal, but those sedans are available only in the Middle East and Japan. And Fr
ost and Sullivan now doesn’t expect all new vehicles to have the systems until at least 2020.

“There have been more hybrid vehicles than 42-volt vehicles,” says Brendan Magee of Exide Technologies. “Some people are saying 2008 and 2010. There are so many systems on a vehicle you would have to change.”

But there is a limit to how far the current 14-volt systems can be pushed. They cannot, for example, offer enough power for new technology such as regenerative braking and electrically assisted power steering units, Magee adds. He expects the early technology to emerge as a hybrid of 12- and 42-volt systems. Radios, for example, could rely on the smaller systems; heaters could draw from the higher voltage.

But if you’re looking for signs of an emerging market, he points to heavy trucks, referring to pressures to introduce accident avoidance systems, and how their sleepers are loaded with creature comforts that would rival any high-end RV.