Rep Power: 1036

Well I took your guys' advice and went and got the alt tested today... Said its supposed to be running at 105 and its at like 75 I think he said, so its charging low.. Im assuming he was talking about amps.

Went and checked out prices and they went from 140-110. I was looking to pay about 80... Anyone know places to buy for cheap, and what I should realistically be looking at for price? TIA.

 
Rep Power: 727

Trust me, I know how it goes when trying to spend as little as you can, but going cheap on hard parts is not a good idea. DO NOT buy an alt from Autozone or Advance Auto, Napa and O'reillys is the only decent hard parts store, i'd definately goto NAPA first though.

Im not sure what the cost on a NAPA alt would be (non reman) but im guessing around 130.

 
Rep Power: 1036

Yeah I never buy parts from autozone or any of those places... I checked out united auto - 140, champion auto - he said like 120 with a 40 core charge? I think that means i pay 40, and get it back when i bring in my old alt, is that right? and lastly napa which I think was 110 or 120. No one mentioned reman .

Another question... Is this going to damage my battery in the meantime?

 
Rep Power: 878

Yea they add the core charge onto the final price. Then when you bring the old one in they give you the core charge back.

There isnt anything wrong with the advance brands.
For remanunfactored one its 114.99 plus a 55 core chrage or you can go with a brand new one that wasnt reman for 129.99 with no core charge. Not a bad deal.

 
Rep Power: 681

I got a reman from O'Reilly's for about $115 then minus about $35 for the core. Its got warranty too, but I dont remember for how long.

 
Rep Power: 1036

Ill have to check OReillys when I get back to the cities.

 
Rep Power: 878

I'm pretty sure they are limited lifetime warranites, Basicly as long as you dont **** it up on purpose and it goes out on normal wear they will replace it.
Its allways good to keep the recipts for it just incase they dont store them on the computers.

 
Rep Power: 765

just don't get worried if you get one home and then it doesn't work. we bought one from napa took it home and we kept having the GEN light on. Turns out our brand new alt was bad so we just exchanged it. it happenes sometimes but not all the time

 
Rep Power: 660

yeah i got mine from oriellys idk how much but it works fine now iv had it for awhile and hve no problems

 
Rep Power: 729

what about an OEM alt? atleast you know it would be what ever the brand is, like AC/Delco...I think mmy trucks alt was replaced with a oem one...thats prob why your battery didnt last long...

 
Rep Power: 1036

my battery lasted longer than ive owned the car... which is over 3 years at least. I dont care if its OEM, im not a fan of getting assraped for something of the same quality much cheaper.

 
Rep Power: 1069

oem doesn't mean better on alternators. Pretty much all the auto parts stores carry the same basic ones, get new not rebuilt or reman, ask most won't tell you (and if you have a core it's a rebuilt which is used and will typically fail within 2 years from my experience)

 
Rep Power: 727

I used to work there. It was almost a 50% return rate in the first 6 months on hard parts. Just trust me.

 
Rep Power: 878

I worked there before also, We had a few come back. But starters were the big thing we returned them palladium remans like they were going out of style. we never had any problem with the new ones. Most of the returns were done through commerical sales since the garages replace a lot of alternators and starters. They trick the system and just bring in the broke alternator/stater or water pump and have them replaced under warranty for free since they previously bought one for another car. Then they go back and charge the customer for the full price and they make money off of it.

 
Rep Power: 727

I know that. But honestly, I wouldnt let my car be touched by a place that uses their parts lol.