Re: Alternator replacement maintenance

Yes, there is a really good chance they read things wrong. The
alternator will not be running stable when it is still trying to get a
deep charge into that battery. Once the battery is fully charged, then
the test may be valid.

If you put a multimeter (cheap ones are ok) on the battery terminals
when it is running, you can get a good idea of the state of things. It
should read somewhere around 13.8 to 14.5 volts. I would do this before
spending money...

Our local auto parts stores sell alternator rebuild kits also. The kits
are in the $20.00 range for most of them. There are throw away
alternators out there too.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2115147590
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)



dwitejdriver wrote:

it seems there's been a slight problem with getting power to get my car
started in the morning.

Tuesday Morning I noticed I left the driver's door slightly open all
night leaving the light on, along with the cigarrette plug for the cell
phone charger insert and unfortunately, I couldn't get enough power to
turn the engine on to start.

I didn't really need to go anywhere with my car so I turned everything
off . . . . though at the time I didn't think about the cell phone
charger (because I didn't have my phone connected to it)

Wednesday Morning I get a jump start from my neighbor and let the car
run for awhile, . . . thinking I had plenty of juice still.

Thursday morning (yesterday morning) battery is too dead to get the
engine to start again and consider the cigarette lighter plug could be
the reason

. . so I call triple AAA and the fellow puts his little quick gadget
to test and tells me the battery is okay just low charged,

but I need to take it to a service center to have it recharged because
the "surface charge" of just running the car isn't sufficient to charge
it on its own.

I wonder though if I were to drive it long enough for hours without
stopping it, if that's really true, especially if I were to drive a
good 120 miles with less than 1 stop on the freeway.

So like the convenient cheap ass that I am,

I went to the nearest battery testing place which is
Bridgestone/Firestone service center (after all they got good deals on
general service like oil changes and what-not with their credit card
package)

nevermind Firestone tire manufacturers had a lawsuit and a recall
awhile back in 2001 because of faulty tires
'http://www.firestone-tire-recall.com/pages/overview.html'
(http://www.firestone-tire-recall.com/pages/overview.html)

afterall what does the service repair department have to do with the
tire manufacturer's 5 years ago?''
(http://www.firestone-tire-recall.com/pages/overview.html)

Anyways, Firestone down the road charges me $19.99 to tell me

the alternator needs replaced . . . "The alternator drains the battery
too fast"

- "LOW OUTPUT & OPEN DIODES"

- along with the battery (BTW it's a 6 year battery, that's 5 years old
. . which should be still under warranty, though I didn't buy the
battery nor have a receipt on it)

NEEDLESS to say . . . I have little trust in these places. . .

a new alternator (price $252.50) + labor ($56.00) is $308.50 from THEM
. .

there's better bargains elsewhere . . . I'm sure of it.

Advice about getting the best deal on an alternator would be much
appreciated. If memory service NAPA may still sell remanufactured
alternators for a lot less than $252.50.

Advice about how much longer I can run my car without replacing the
alternator would be needed, considering yesterday after I got the
triple A jump and let the car run for awhile, driving it for awhile, I
HAD NO PROBLEM starting and stopping and driving the car SEVERAL TIMES
yesterday. So is there a chance this is an auto repair scam or not?

--
dwitejdriver
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