Alternators: 60k lifetime?

Jul 12, 2003 6 Replies

First reply

Ben Hogland

Not in my book.. I've never had to replace an alternator before 85K on any of my vehicles. Maybe I've been lucky.. That's probably a good rule of thumb for a water pump though... That or 70K. Ben

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Just replaced my '98 'burb's alternator for the third time.



My experience is that an alternator is good for about 60,000 miles.



Does this sound like a good rule of thumb?



If so, the next one's going to be a premptive replacement 50k miles from now.



----------------------- PeteCresswell


Not in my book.. I've never had to replace an alternator before 85K on any of my vehicles. Maybe I've been lucky..

That's probably a good rule of thumb for a water pump though... That or

70K.

Ben

You got lucky. CS-130's don't last that long. CS-130D's last just about that long. BTW, Was it a diode failure? Hope you got a decent rebuild.

Cheers

Many times the brushes wear out. Try just replacing them for $5 or so.

RE/

Don't know enough to say.

The diagnostic machine said "Low Output" on this one.

Was 400 miles from home and it was July 3rd - so I didn't shop around. Connected the spare battery I always carry, nursed it to a NAPA store about 40 miles away, took what they had (rebuild) and got a guy down the street to install it.

Got back to the place I was staying at with a total elapsed time of 4 hours. A lot better than the 4 days I was anticipating...

The 60k figure I blurted out came from a combination of what the NAPA guy said ( "about 65,000 miles") and my own experiences.

----------------------- PeteCresswell

RE/

Maybe I'll start carrying one too.

How hard is it to replace in the field? Seems like the main problem on a Vortec 5.7 would be the serpentine belt.

----------------------- PeteCresswell

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