Starter motors and alternators - which to buy?

You can always ask what brand will be installed, but most likely it'll be whatever brand the auto parts store stocks that they call on a regular basis. If the auto parts store doesn't have it in stock they will either order one from their own warehouse, or go to an outside source and get another brand so the installer will have it quicker. Unless the installer is an authorized installer of a particular brand, they usually don't care what brand they get as long as it works.

The mechanic usually doesn't have a say in what brand is being installed. It all depends on the auto parts store that is called. Shops usually stick to a few suppliers and usually call one more than the others. (usually the cheapest price wins most of the time)

If you want a particular brand installed you might be better off purchasing it yourself and then having a shop install it for you. The bad side of doing this is the shop won't cover the part if anything goes wrong with it, and usually the labor charge is more if you supply your own parts.

Chas

From my experience the shop doesn't care what brand. They have a preferred supplier and use whatever that supplier brings them unless it is a specialty item then it usually comes from the dealer.

You can ask them to use a certain brand and I imagine they will. Some shops will also install one that you bring but they won't give you any warranty so that is a pretty bad option to choose.

Steve B.

Rebuild the OEM part. An alternator or starter is cheap to have rebuilt at a local auto electric re-builder (there are three in my neck of the woods in a fairly small town).

Brushes and diodes are cheap and a good auto electric shop will make the original part good as new for half the price of the off-shore "rebuild" that you buy from a chain autoparts store (that may or may not have been done "well")

It is not as convenient as going to autozone but will outlast anything they offer, lifetime warranty or not. Al

Around here an in house rebuild is about 2x the cost of an OTC reman. That said I still would second your advice.

nate

I have bought some Autozone alternators and starter motors over the many years.I have never had any problems with them, other than ordinary wear and tear.There is an auto electric repair shop less than one mile from me.I have had a few things rebuilt there before. cuhulin

Not around here. i do 'em myself. Voltage regulator/rectifiers are about $45, and brushes run all of $3 each. Bearings are in the $20 ballpark. As long as the rotor/commutator are good, you're good to go.

Agreed. I will rebuild my own stuff IF I can get parts. Delcos, Autolites, that's still available at your FLAPS if you ask. Bosch... not so much. Not sure why.

nate

Ditto. In my area getting an alternator or starter rebuilt is just as pricey as buying one new.

You *have* cars for which new starters are still available? :)

seriously, if nothing else, I patronize the rebuilder because I want to make sure I can still get my stuff serviced in 5 years when even the regular FLAPS remans are NLA. that and they do do their rebuilds in house and bench test them before you ever pick them up.

nate

unfortunately the market is turning into a parts replacement service. Real mechanics/techs are getting harder to come by. Why wait 2 days for a rebuild when you can have it deliverd new or rebuilt in less time it takes to get a pizza?

I'm going to chime in my $.02 here and all of you can take it however you want it. First, the idea of having your local generator shop or rebuilding it yourself is fine.....IF this is for a family member or if this is for yourself and time means nothing. If you've got a customer in the waiting room and will be there until the car is finished, forget about rebuilding the original part. Fact it, time is money and the customer's time is important too. Now if this is for yourself (or your family) and you want to rebuild it, that great. Except most of the replacement parts are made in a third world country where quality and inspections went out the window. Any of you purchased an alternator bearing or starter solenoid lately? Junk. An old Delco alternator regulator or a GM HEI ignition module? It may come in a box that has a brand name on the outside, but in reality, it's junk. So your rebuilder down the street is also putting junk back into your original part. Not that your rebuilt assemblies from your chain stores are any better, but the argument to have it rebuilt has gotten a lot weaker in the last 20 years. I'm all for rebuilding an item myself. You know exactly what's in it. But trying to do it everytime will lose you money and prolong the time it takes for a repair.

I rebulit two alternator for old Toyotas, with a mish-mash of parts; some from Toyota, some from CarQuest, where I worked for a while.

The first one was an old Corolla (hachiroku) with genuine Toyota parts: $65 for a regulator, $22 for bearings and $6 for brushes. The brushes were from an Ace Hardware store.

On an old Celica I owned years later, I got the parts from CarQuest. Regulator: same part number (on the part) as the OEM one. $40 Bearings: same Timken Japan bearings as the original, $14 each Brushes: same $3 brushes from Ace Hardware... The first one is still going since 1991.

well, the in-house rebuilders generally only fix what's broke, so the only "questionable" parts are the ones that were already broken. e.g. if I take them a Delco alternator that just needs bearings and brushes, it'll come back with the original regulator. I'm OK with that... I'd ASSume that they'll use the best stuff they can get, too, because they have to warranty it... (not that I've ever taken anything back to them. They rebuilt the starter on the 944 a couple years ago - and just try to get one of those at your FLAPS - and it's still going strong.)

nate

Never said I was a 100-watt bulb...

What does FLAPS mean? cuhulin

I would have said FNAPS, but that doesn't spell a word, does it?

FLAPS = Friendly Local Auto Parts Store ( I had to search it to figure it out lol)

I guess that makes my store FFAPS - Friendly Fisher Auto Parts Store. :)

Chas

does it have to spell a word??

Of course!