2004 Lexus RX300. In the last *10* *years* it's done less than 1,000 miles because the owner's been living abroad. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Worth buying or would I just be buying a whole heap of trouble?

Not enough info really. Price? Where has it been parked? Alongside a northern trunk road, regularly being sprayed with salt and covered with snow, or in a cosy garage? Personally, I would not have much problem with the low mileage, but need to budget for an oil and brake fluid change, and a set of tyres.

Buy it or steer well clear?

May 10, 2016 87 Replies

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Dave Plowman (News) 10 years ago

My findings too. I've not got a huge experience of dealer servicing since the vast majority of cars I've owned have been old, and DIY serviced. But a few years ago - needing a fairly posh car for work - I bought a near new BMW and had it main dealer serviced, while the warranty still applied. And I don't think they once did a decent job. Sometimes careless, sometimes plain dishonest. The independant I later used was pretty good though. As well as much cheaper.

Standard practice with some - insisting you pay for snake oil. Sadly, many have no option but to pay up.

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Steve Walker 10 years ago

Nope, but I know people who were. I seem to remember one of them doing the same thing to a small block Chevy engine too.

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Peter Hill 10 years ago

Brushes wore out at 80K on my 1984 Celica XT. They cost about 50p each and just undoing 3 bolts and a bit of leverage got the rear cover off. And then the new brushes could be soldered in. Had to drill a small hole in them to fit the nail that slid though matching holes on brush holder to hold them clear of the slip rings as the rear cover was re-fitted. The holes were away from the rubbing end of the brush.

1989 Nissan 200SX go 120K miles. I know this as I have 2 in the shed awaiting brushes. Utter pig of a job, needs a 200W soldering iron to heat the bearing retainer and release the rear cover. My biggest iron is 80W. They say it mustn't have direct heat like a hot air gun or blow torch. Then the brush lift wire holds the brushes by the contact face and only engages with holes each side of the holder. This means that once the wire is out of the far hole it will be pushed on to the slip ring, possibly leaving a score mark.

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Dave Plowman (News) 10 years ago

The highest mileage alternator I know of is on my brother's BMW E28 520. Well over 250,000 miles.

I've no explanation why some brushes apparently wear out while others don't - unless it's dust etc being drawn through the alternator. And the position on the engine may make a difference to this.

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Chris Whelan 10 years ago

[..]

Harmonic vibration causing brush bounce. It's sometimes a big problem in industrial machines.

Chris

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steve robinson 10 years ago

Quality of the components used , engineering tolerances , the way you drive the vehicle (miss daisy as apposed to Jensen button) damping of vibrations .

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tony sayer 10 years ago

One in my olde Audi A6 hit 245 thousand odd...

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Dave Plowman (News) 10 years ago

Which is odd. Either they wear out or they don't. I was surprised by the comment since I've never had an alternator fail due to worn out brushes.

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