Alternators keep going bad
01-09-2009, 09:19 AM
#1
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Alternators keep going bad My first alternator (original) went bad at 70k miles. Two months after Chevy put a new one in, it went bad again. Chevy replaced it for free. Two more months later and the damn thing went bad again. I got a new red top Optima battery and new battery terminals. Why would the alternators keep going bad?
01-09-2009, 11:59 AM
#2
My first alternator (original) went bad at 70k miles. Two months after Chevy put a new one in, it went bad again. Chevy replaced it for free. Two more months later and the damn thing went bad again. I got a new red top Optima battery and new battery terminals. Why would the alternators keep going bad?
If thats not it, unfortunately you might have an electrical short that needs to be traced down
The dealer should have been the ones to find that out for you on the second alternator swap.
01-10-2009, 01:04 PM
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Dealer said it was the pcm. The connecter pin for the alernator was loose from the actual pcm. For some reason my car with 75k miles was under an emission warranty and it was replaced for free along with another alternator. Never would of thought that was the problem.
03-09-2009, 10:17 AM
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So my alternator quit charging again. I started having problems right after the dealer replaced the stock one. The stock one wasn't bad but it was making noise and I had a warranty. So they replaced it and I swapped in an Optima red top battery. It will work for 1-2 months and then go out again. My power steering is new and isn't leaking. Maybe the wires connecting to the alternator have a short?
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03-09-2009, 02:53 PM
#8
As crazy as i might sound, it can also be the alternators that they are replacing that are bad.. I had the exact same problem when my T/A once it reached 70 some odd miles.. i took it to gm several times n had mine replaced n still had my alt going out.. I ended up buying an alternator my self, replaced it along with the wire that connects to it and havent had a problem ever since..
03-09-2009, 04:19 PM
#11
just to let you know I had the exact same problem, I was replacing mine with the autozone duralast alternators, and after the 5th one thats right the 5th one I made them give me my money back and went to Oreillys and bought one of their brand new ones, never had a problem since. I thought it was my car too, but it wasnt the cars electrical system is pretty straight forward on the alternator system. Never doubt that the new alternators can be the problem, I know I never would have thought it until I seen it first hand.
03-09-2009, 05:05 PM
#12
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just to let you know I had the exact same problem, I was replacing mine with the autozone duralast alternators, and after the 5th one thats right the 5th one I made them give me my money back and went to Oreillys and bought one of their brand new ones, never had a problem since. I thought it was my car too, but it wasnt the cars electrical system is pretty straight forward on the alternator system. Never doubt that the new alternators can be the problem, I know I never would have thought it until I seen it first hand.
03-09-2009, 05:23 PM
#13
I've heard of these issues so I made sure that I got a rebuilt AC Delco when I replaced mine (it still worked but was making noise and the mount was stripped out thanks to some moron who worked on my car). That was months ago and it is still just fine.
03-09-2009, 05:24 PM
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Well I got the car back today. The Chevy tech checked the pcm, wires from pcm, ground wires, and wires from the alternator. It's under a parts warranty for alternator, wires, and pcm. He said the alternator was not charging again. So instead of getting the ac delco part from Carquest, they ordered one brand new from Chevy. From what I understand, the Carquest ones are re-manufactured to the same quality. Anyway, the new alternator is working fine. The dealer isn't allowed to take stuff off unless it's faulty and they had it for 8 hours tracing wires and grounds. I asked about the Optima battery causing it to fail and he said no it was the alternators coming from Carquest because they "are" but aren't the same quality as the ones from Chevy. Bad thing was that I was at the track and didn't notice the alternator went out until my second pass when I kept redlining it because the gauges were like 500 rpms slow. I pulled it over and the battery gauge was in the red so some guy happen to have a huge battery charger than charge the battery in like 10 minutes which got me 30 miles back home, at night, and drove to the dealer 5 miles away the next morning. All is good so far.
