Carquest brand Alternators

[YouNeverSawMeHere]

Junk or OK?

I Think I had one puke out on me after 4 days.

[Joe M]

Rebuilt Alts are 50/50 Either perfect or they gonna crap out.

[Video_Master]

just get your rebuilt from Trbovan

[Ford Fan]

It depends on what brand they carry. I'm not 100% sure on that one. I can tell you good and bad about some other companies out there. A lot of times the alternator fails for a reason. They typically don't just go bad. Also, if it failed after 4 days there's probably something else wrong. Usually what we see is if someone brings one back within a week (which doesn't happen very often) we ask them if they charged the battery before starting the car when they installed it and it's always a no. With all the electronics on cars these days, the alternator is NOT designed to charge a battery. It's designed to maintain it's charge. If you don't charge the battery or replace it after installing a new alternator-it full fields the alternator and can take the new one out. But, there are plenty of other things that can cause it. Are there problems with rebuilt alternators and starters? Sure there are, but from my experience, regardless of the brand, it's usually not the alternator/starters fault.

What's the voltage drop on the positive and negative sides? That will tell you why it took out the new one if it did. Also, excessive AC voltage in the system is a sure sign that the alternator is on it's way out. It's very easy to check on a GM but the Ford's are a little tougher. The voltage drops are also easy to check. If you want to know how PM me and I'll let you know.

Rebuilts were the ONLY option until about a year ago. Everything was rebuilt except the ones from the factory.

[OrangeCrush 86]

Johns Auto Electric .

[Scorpner]

I was told by a store employee(not saying which one) that one brand had a 70% return rate despite the lifetime warranty. It was the same place that I replaced the alternator four times. It would start making noise and then it would fail.

AES in bloomington rebuilds them as well as a guy up in Rogers off of 101. I haven't tried either yet, but I will next time.

[RyanM]

i only install auto electric at work but carquest is my main supplier for almost everything else

[sc0tty8]

I'd like to get my alt rebuilt for more then 200amps

[mnstang]

if an alternator fails because the battery was low, weak, whatever.. the alternator was on it's way out anyway and you don't want it. they are made to be able to do that, period.

i've jumpstarted 100's of cars before, and i've yet to have it puke out an alternator from letting it charge the battery back up by letting it run afterwards.

i have no experience with carquest alternators though, wouldn't surprise me if it went bad though, i'd be more comfortable with a used part than most rebuilt/reman'd alternators from parts stores. i don't know why the failure rate is so high either, it isn't a hard process.

[Ford Fan]

I can tell you that right around 70% of the alternators/starters that people say are "bad"-bench test good at our store. This includes alternators/starters coming back from repair shops as warranty units, units on customers cars that are having problems (these being the majority), and potential "defects" from retail customers. I can also tell you that the number that come back as justifiable warranties I'd say are probably less than 5%-again, at our store. We sell a crap load of rotating electrical and really don't see very many units that people are having problems with. Do we see bad units from time to time? Sure we do. But they just aren't real common.

Now, our bench tester is one of the best you can buy. It cost us $5000. Now, I'm not saying there is nothing wrong with these "defective" alternators, or original units, because I know a bench tester can't produce real world conditions. What I CAN tell you is that if it's a retail customer-I can usually help them find out what's wrong with the car-and they fix it without having to replace the alternator/starter. I can also tell you that after I've told someone there is nothing wrong with the alternator or starter-I've never had them come back and tell me a shop diagnosed it as being bad when I told them it was good (this inlcudes alleged defective units). Again-it could be a coincidence here-but this is just my dealings.

Also a voltage drop here goes a long ways. A lot of these vehicles have voltage drops in the 1.5-2V range. Of course it's going to overwork the alternator. But the best one I saw I think was on a mid 90's GM car, I can't exactly remember, but the poor guy put in an alternator from us and came back the same day. He says it's not charging. I check it out and sure enough it's not charging. So, in the mean-time our "rep" from our company's rotating electrical line is here that day. I get him involved. He checks it out. Turns out the light in the dash is part of the charging circuit, and if the light in the dash doesn't work, neither does the alternator. So, we sold him a new dash light bulb, jump start his car, he drives home and puts the bulb in. He calls us back 2 hours later and tells us it fixed the problem.

As far as you jump starting "100's of cars" and never seen one puke-I do believe you. I'm not saying that's what causes every one to fail. Maybe it's a coincidence. But, the FACT remains, alternators now a days are not like your 1980 chevy caprice with a 42 amp alternator on it. These units are 130+ amps, everything is electronic on these vehicles, and they ARE NOT designed to be full fielded for any length of time.

Another big killer of an alternator-especially seeming to be GM's-is the fact that the tensioner is just not doing it's job and the belt is slipping. If you have an alternator that comes off and there appears to be a lot of dust on the front of it-mostly on the fan blades of the alternator, it's because there is, it's belt dust because the belt is slipping on the pulley under high load situations. All that needs to be done is a new tensioner and the problem will go away. Gates says the number is as high as 70% of the vehicles on the road have tensioners that are not working properly and need to be replaced. I don't know if I would say the number is as high as 70% (even though I do believe what Gates says as they have right around 75% of the OEM business in belts and tensioners on light duty vehicles) but I can tell you it's probably over 50% from what I've seen-especially on GM's.

As far as you trusting a used unit before a reman. unit, well, wow is all I can say. If you don't have any faith in the parts store you deal with, I think it's time to find a new parts supplier. We are first call with every one of our automotive repair shops on rotating electrical-including the GM dealer in town.

We could go on and on for hours on this subject, but quite frankly, you're not going to change my mind and I'm not going to change your mind. So, I will kindly bow out of this conversation. "YouNeverSawMeHere"-if I can help in any way PM me.

Nick

[Scorpner]

It's easy to tell if the alt is bad with a voltmeter. If the voltage is over 14v or so, the regulator is in question, allowing it to overcharge the battery. If it's below, the alt itself is not producing enough. But there are a few things like slipping belts and intermittent failures/loads that can cause problems as well. You can have your alt checked before you actually buy the replacement, but will not always find some real world problems.

I made a deal to plug a voltmeter into the lighter socket because I had an intermittent charging issue in one of my cars and it helped me find out what was going on.

[Ford Fan]

Just because the voltmeter shows less than 12V with the vehicle running doesn't mean it's the alternator's fault. In most cases-yes, but there are a lot of other things that can cause it. There's a lot but a dirty ground is just one of many things.

Also, starters are a lot worse than alternators as far as being condoned bad when they really aren't. But, in the case of a lot of alternators, they are working a lot harder than they should have to because of other things wrong with the vehicle. Mostly voltage drops and tensioners in my opinion. Most people don't take the time to figure out why a part failed. This is the difference between a parts replacer and a technician IMO. Nick

[sport the war]

pretty much ford, having a buttload of power accesories and running a puny ass 35$ battery is a good way to fry em' weekly.

[Ford Fan]

I laugh when the guy with the 2000 powerstroke with 150,000 miles comes in and says "give me the cheapest battery you've got".

[tim]

pretty much ford, having a buttload of power accesories and running a puny ass 35$ battery is a good way to fry em' weekly.

That is funny. The longest lasting OE battery I have seen so far is a Motorcraft battery. Hands down. GM being the worst.