Alternator Replaced

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:54 am

Well to add to all the things wrong with my truck, My altinator was going out for a week or so now. I took the truck up to autozone to have them put it on the meter and tell me if it was my battery or my altinator ( I already knew it was not my battery). My altinator was only drawing about 62 amps, the rebuilt one from autozone ( 100-105 amps )is a lifetime warranty for $98 plus $10 core. So I went that route. It was not charging the battery enough in the short rides to work. It had been nice out so I said screw replacing it and was riding my new (to me) motorcycle to work for a week or so. It was a pretty easy install except I would recomend not doing it as soon as you get home from driving around town getting parts for it. It was kinda HOT. Put on the mechanic gloves and wah la. Just thought I would fill you all in.

Post by **HenryJ** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:20 pm

Thanks for sharing

How many miles were on it?

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:52 pm

It had 68K mileson it.

Post by **HenryJ** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:57 pm

That is interesting. My brushes were about 45% gone at 40k miles , IIRC.
Must have been a rectifier, or regulator issue perhaps.

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:00 pm

I was going to have it rebuilt at a local shop(30 minutes away in next town) but, they wanted $75 to do it. So I decided to pay a little more and get the lifetime warranty.

Post by **HenryJ** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:08 pm

Can't blame you there. Sometimes the quality of those "lifetime" alternators can be a little suspect. If you are having to pay for the installation, or if it is a difficult installation, they may not be the best choice.
I have had really good luck with them on assorted vehicles though. I can only recall a couple warranty returns and those were starters in high abuse environments. Most of the time you can detect a shabby core and just ask for another choice. It should serve you well.

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:14 pm

Hopefully it will last me till I no longer have the truck. Many many moons from now.

border man · Post by **border man** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:46 pm

My OEM one went out at about the same mileage 55-60,000 miles. Been running the autozone LLT warranty one for about 2 years now.

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:58 pm

OK listen to this. I bought a remanufactured alternator at Autozone two weeks ago. Sunday night I get ready to go to work and my truck is dead again! I take wifes 04 Grand Prix to work. I jump my truck in the morning when I get off and drive my truck back up to Autozone so they can check it and see what the problem is. My NEW alternator is only drawing 69 amps. The schmuck is like "I am boggled. We don't usually have problems with these alternators." He says take the alternator off, bring it in, and we will give you a new one. I am thinking YOU TAKE IT OFF AND PUT A NEW ONE ON FOR ME. But I stayed nice. I went home and took it off brought it back and they stuck it on their test machine. To my surprise it was perfectly fine, passed all 3 tests it does. So I am thinking BATTERY. I asked him what it was drawing and he did'nt know but it was still good. So they procede to give me a new alternator and wished me better luck with this one. I take it home and re-install it. Before I hook it up I pull the battery and take it down to Advanced Auto ( where I should of went from the get-go ) and had them check it. Here to find out, My battery has a bad cell. So I buy a new one from them. So I really don't think I will be going back to Autozone for anything any more. Unless emergency.

Post by **HenryJ** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:24 pm

A bad battery will take out an alternator very quickly. They are not designed to charge a dead battery, just to maintain a good system.

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:27 pm

See I knew that but, aparently he did not. I just wanted to know what they were reading.