i was lucky to meet another great guy (rbracy10406), who has experience with this, and sent this valuable data:
"The part number for the regulator will depend on whether you have the Bosch or Valeo alternator. The brushes in the pictures I had were worn to the point to where they were starting to fail. (i think he was referring to his alternator).
In my experience, they fail about every 50Kish on these cars.
Ive heard of some people replacing these just as a PM but I never went that far."

This picture is of a worn brush and a new 1 on a similar valeo alternator
https://www.myturbodiesel.com/d2/ima...on-brushes.jpg