another alternator bites the dust

Methinks there is something killing your alternator. I'd be interested to know what failed in the alternator, the diodes, the windings or the bearings. If you find out, I may have some insight into the problem.

Have you been getting new Subaru replacements or aftermarket rebuilds? I've had a lot of trouble with rebuilds for a Toyota.

-rick-

From what I understand, you can't find new alternators for this year.... even at the Subaru dealerships. You have to go with rebuilt ones.

My Napa alternator (alternator #3) lasted me 1 1/2 years and about 30k miles. Of course, I don't know if it was the alternator that failed first or the battery. Battery didn't take a charge, both were bad... both were under warantee. Just another bad marriage, don't know which one went bad first (another chicken or the egg mystery).

Anyhow, car seems to be happy now with the new Napa alternator and new Napa battery... I just need to take care of the leaking power stering fluid now (does this stuff ever end?). Hey-yo, time to take another long trip.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that stuff.

-- Pete

replacements,

One should never complain about leaking power steering fluid unless one has owned a Ford Taurus.

Yep, that's what I did for alternator #2. That one lasted 60k miles before it stranded me in the middle of nowhere. It had a lifetime warrantee, however lifetime warrantee's don't do much good when you break down 200+ miles away from the place that honors the warrantee.

--Pete

Find a place that

Bob wirtes:

So glad to find someone else here that knows about that recall.... thought I was imagining that whole thing. The only way that I found out about it was through a used car wholesaler friend of mine... I then contacted Subaru and found out about it. Unfortunately, that was AFTER I replaced alternator #1. Subaru was nice enough to reimburse me for the part, however they made sure they covered their butts by including a waiver with the reimbursement check stating that they were not responsible for any further liability.

My irritation with Subaru is that they failed to inform me about the recall when I first brought the car into the dealership during the alternator #1 problem. If they had, all of this trouble would have been avoided. Sure would like to know why I was not informed of that recall, and why this recall is such a big secret (it's not listed among the recalls at the Subaru web site).

How and when did you find out about this recall??

-- Pete

For what it's worth. I have a Subaru rebuilt (according to Subaru's specs) alt waiting to be installed (by me) Not sure but I would trust it to last longer than a simple aftermarket one. History will tell. Anybody else tried this kind of rebuilt alt?

Got a new alternator and a new battery.... I installed them yesterday and had them tested... everything seemed to be working fine. Today, I warm up the car and the radio goes dead and then the wipers start moving in slow motion. There's clearly a short in the system.

Jim Stewart writes:

What is it? How do I get it diagnosed?

I believe it was the diodes... definately not the bearings.

No way to find out because they send the thing back to the scrap yard.

-- Pete

Hi,

I used a chain store "remanufactured" unit when I had to replace my original (which went over 300k miles, BTW) but would go to Subaru in the future. Quality difference between aftermarket and Subaru's "remanufactured" stuff I've seen so far is night and day even though the one I bought had a "big" name on the box.

Rick

A lot of the time only the brushes are bad. It's usually worth the effort to tear it apart and see what's actually wrong. If it is only the brushes, it's a $5 repair.

T>

Sometimes... looking for brushes for my unit produced more blank stares than one could imagine. I've replaced brushes in some alternators easily at low cost. Other times I've had to replace the whole unit. It all depends on what unit you have and the parts pipeline supporting it. (And sometimes where you are when you need to fix the dead item!) YMMV...

Rick

Wjorking as a mechanic, I replaces many alternators on Japanese vehicles, and you're right, many of them only needed brushes. My boss would rather replace than rebuild for liability reasons. We had a good source of rebuilds which worked out very well. Most of the OEM alt's seemed to last 120k-130k miles before the brushes went.

Hi,

The slip rings are basically the equivalent of the commutator in a generator, but still use brushes to contact them. Brushes are relatively small compared to most old generator brushes, and since the slip rings are smooth instead of grooved, the brushes last a long time compared to generator brushes. But there's still a set of brushes involved.

Rick