35le

iTrader: (2)

My alternator went out on my 98 z28 so I went to autozone and bought a remanufactured one and put it on and was fine but when I redlined the car while racing the amp gauge went to red so i took it back off and brought it back to autozone and they tested it and said it was bad,i have a lifetime warranty so i got another one and put it on and the samething happend so could someone help me out anything would be appreciated thanks...

Dmoney

iTrader: (22)

You need to recharge your battery everytime you have an alternator failure. When you don't recharge your battery it causes the alternator to work harder, thus causing it to fail again. Either recharge it or get a new one......................

Empatho

iTrader: (16)

autozone parts suck dont buy from them

Dimitri-

iTrader: (10)

I know!! I had the same damn problem about 2 years ago, I went through 4 REFURBISHED ones from Pep boys.. they all sucked.. but one finally actually lasted for about a year.. until 3 HOURS AGO.

God damn thing isnt charging, and im not sure if I have the receipt for it. I have to take a look at it tomorrow, i hate these fkin **** alternators. does anyone know where to get one that WONT die in a year?
edit: What do you mean charge the battery, like take it someplace to recharge or jump it and let the other car give it gas?

35le

iTrader: (2)

Why would they only go out at high rpm or hit the rev limiter...

atxz/28maro

iTrader: (2)

I personally have been through 11 alternators from autozone (yup 11, confirmed through their system), I did everything I could think of such as checking ALL the grounds on the ENTIRE car (thanks alldata), adding another chassis ground, and I even rewired the entire "exciter wire"..... finally they gave me the "gold" one for free and I haven't had any problems in about 3 weeks now. I found that I blew the alternator under power near redline also.


Now I also found another problem which i think might have led to that:

I lost my battery tie-down and thought nothing of it.... but after close inspection of the positive terminal I saw it had "char" marks on it.

What was happening to me was under power the battery would tip back, and ground the positive side onto the a/c receiver canistor thing right behind the positive, confirmed by small "char" marks on both... something worth checking if you have gone through as many as me. I also have a very hefty stereo in mine... I checked all the connections there and found no problems.

I finally got a proper battery tie-down when I got the last alternator... could be that fixed it, could be I just finally got a good one.... don't know but that is something to check

atxz/28maro

iTrader: (2)

oh, and by charge it he means literally just that...

I have a car battery charger and while having the battery disconnected I just hooked it up to the charger and let it do it's work... autozone will charge your battery for free but it usually takes a few hours...

if your drive your car on a dead alternator it uses all the battery power, then your battery is weak. when you start your car back up with the new alternator then it has to work double time to keep the car running as well as charge the battery back up

E V I L

iTrader: (6)

Just the thread I was looking for.

My alternator went out about 6 months ago and I replaced with with a refurbished Autozone alternator. 1 month ago that alternator died very slowly and I got a refund on the Autozone alternator and bought a brand new Alternator from Oreilly's which worked decent since install, but always dropped to about 12 volts with the AC on. Yesterday the gauge started to drop into the yellow zone (10-11 volts) and I guess this one is already done! When I installed my new alternator I had a friend jump my car with cables, should I have taken it to Autozone to get my battery charged? Thanks

35le

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for all the replys I appreciate it, does anybody know of a alternator that is known for being good or anybrands im dumbfounded...

Dimitri-

iTrader: (10)

Likewise..

I tried mine again today and it wasnt as bad as yesterday, but when I put the radio and ac on it starts to go down more, I think its starting to go bad. Bastards.

E V I L

iTrader: (6)

Im using a Master Pro Platinum right now and am going to pick up another and try it today. Wish me luck!

E V I L

iTrader: (6)

I ended up attempting to pull off my alternator today and the 1st thing I did was remove the power strap on top and it snapped in 1/2. Pulled the strap down and noticed it basically had no connection. I spliced in a new connector and now I have perfect charge! I got lucky but others may want to check this. Actually pull the black rubber boot back and check the connection, mine was all corroded and nasty. Good luck!

35le

iTrader: (2)

Evil I wish I was that luky, but good eye saved you work....

MagnaTransAm0098

iTrader: (10)

take this for what its worth a alternator on a 4.3 blazer is the same thing, my mom has a blazer, I went through 5 NAPA alternators in 2 months, I put a A&A one on my trans am, lasted maybe 50 miles, put another went maybe 100 and the inside melted. I took it back got my store credit and bout a used FACTORY one off a blazer in a junk yard, no problems, knock on wood. Bottom line reman electrical parts are junk, im going through the same problem right now with a distributor for a van, and in about a 1/2 hour im leaving for the junk yard for a used one of those also. Good luck

35le

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the advice I just returned the remanufactured one and bought a brand new autolite from kragen, its working good so far but I have not redlined it just been putting around....

Formula413

iTrader: (1)

I saw a poll on here once about alternators, and the consensus seemed to be that AC Delco alternators have proven to be the most reliable, just about any parts store brand alternators seem to consistently fail.

+1 for finding one at a junkyard, since it is an original and not a reman. That's what I did on my DD Escort, works great.

danbo313

iTrader: (8)

I had my alternator fail back in December so i replaced it with a reman from auto value. I had my battery on the charger overnight while I was waiting for the part to come in. That alternator lasted about 2k miles or aprox. a month. I had to have that alternator rebuilt by a local shop that usually does awesome work because autovalue didn't have any in stock. The guy replaced all the electronics in the alt with AC delco parts. I also put in a new optima battery.

For a little while now, my check guages light was coming on when I got the car up to high RPM's and i wasn't quite sure what it was. I figured it out this past weekend when i jumped on it and it was dark out, the alt quit charging at high rpms. The cutoff rpm has steadily been dropping. Luckily it stayed above cruising rpm for my 375 mile trip home. However today its down to about 1600 RPM before it cuts out.

I'm thinking its the regulator inside the alt takin a dump, but i'm not sure. Anyone ever run in to the same problem?

samson_420

iTrader: (1)

From what it looks like the Camaro alternators are total crap. The only ones I have seen do well is the expensive high amp ones. But they are damn expensive.

blubyu02

iTrader: (17)

im going thru the same thing now with alernators, im on my 3rd, my first one lasted bout 2500 miles b4 the check guage light came on and the needle went into the yellow, the second one lasted bout 25 miles before the same thing happened, both are ac delco with lifetime warranty, im getting it back tommorow im sure the mechanic isnt happy being that he hasnt charged me to put any one since the first one, i have know idea what could be goingwrong with them in such a short time. what kind of blazer alternator did you use to fit??? like whatyear? its becoming a headach, lately i have been carrying around 2 battery's in my car cuz the first time it happened i was 2hours from home and had toget another bat just to make it to my home and just left it in car in case it happened again, low and behold it happened again.........................