So, I’ve had my car for about 4 years now and I’ve going to be installing my 5th alternator this week. The original one went because of my amp, the second one went because it was a junkyard alternator that had frozen up when my car sat for 3 months. The third one was from CarQuest and killed itself cause it was putting out over 15v all the time, now the warrentied one from CarQuest started smoking today and was extrememly hot, I even heard engine whine from the speaker on my radar detector.
Now, my question is, do I just keep getting crappy alternators from Carquest or could something else be killing my alternators. I have my battery in the trunk run with 4guage and a very solid ground. Also, the 3rd alternator left me stranded in syracuse for a night where I had to shell out $60 for a hotel room and another $60 for a mechanic to install it, does anyone think I have any leverage with CarQuest here?? I spent like $300 on the alternator, it does have a warrenty, but it is being very inconvienient. Let me know.
Thanks-Josh
talk to the manager of carquest…if the current carquest alternator has a warrenty, find out if it means you can just go in and get a new one…or take the fried one back and get a refund and go somewhere else
I have a red top that I put in early this summer, the first two I know how they died, the third one was reading much higher voltage. I haven’t measured this one lately, will tomorrow, but the when I first had it installed it was reading fine.
Speaking from experience you have no leverage with Carquest on this one. Carquest will gladly warranty the alternator, but that is their only responsibility. I can tell you first hand that Carquest sees very, and I mean very few alternators come back. There could be other factors here, like belt tension, battery condition, wiring, any number of things. To get 2 bad alternators is a row is kind of suspicious
The first alternator I got from them was constantly running between 15.2v and 16.2v and eventually burned itself up. I was told that the regulator may of had a bad ground, but doesn’t that ground through the alternator case directly to the block?? I got the new one and that one read between 12.8v-14.6v on the SAFC up untill the day I sold the SAFC. Well, last night I was driving home and saw smoke coming from under my hood, I checked it out and realized it was coming from the alternator and the alternator itself was extrememly hot to touch. I’m not sure what the voltage is right now, but I’ll bring my meter home from work and check it.
Speaking from experience you have no leverage with Carquest on this one. Carquest will gladly warranty the alternator, but that is their only responsibility. I can tell you first hand that Carquest sees very, and I mean very few alternators come back. There could be other factors here, like belt tension, battery condition, wiring, any number of things. To get 2 bad alternators is a row is kind of suspicious
charging @ 15+ all day is the regulator… there is a black box inline W/ the alt wire… otherwise your going to keep burning them out. A friend of mine just went through the same thing.
well my first question is – is it the tiburon having these problems, or the neon?
anyway i had a similar problem when i had the cavalier. If you want to fix it correctly and never worry about it again, you’re going to have to buy an upgraded alternator. the amount of amperage needed will be dictated by the amount of the current draw. some people might tell you to use a cap, and that would help… but that’s not going to fix your problem.
so an easy way to do this is to go ahead and look at the fuse size on the amplifier (or amplifiers) you’re using. lets say it uses a 50amp fuse just for the sake of argument and that the car has a factory is rated at 100amps. since the amplifier is capable of pulling more than 50amps (at peak, and only for short periods of time) you’re going to need a minimum of a 150 amp upgraded alternator to run both your accessories and your amplifier.
i personally went through 2 100amp alternators in the cavalier, and keep in mind that i had already incorporated large capacitors. once i upgraded to a 150amp, i had zero problems.
so anyway, my personal recommendation based on my background in 12volt electronics is to upgrade the alternator to a higher output. i wasn’t always a desk jockey after all.
Replaced the alternator this morning and it was running at 15.6v, way to high. Then I touched the regulator harness and it dropped to 14.35, problem found. The harness wasn’t making connection anymore, so I ran new wires with spade terminals and problem solved!!
