it seems there's been a slight problem with getting power to get my car started in the morning.
Tuesday Morning I noticed I left the driver's door slightly open all night leaving the light on, along with the cigarrette plug for the cell phone charger insert and unfortunately, I couldn't get enough power to turn the engine on to start.
I didn't really need to go anywhere with my car so I turned everything off . . . . though at the time I didn't think about the cell phone charger (because I didn't have my phone connected to it)
Wednesday Morning I get a jump start from my neighbor and let the car run for awhile, . . . thinking I had plenty of juice still.
Thursday morning (yesterday morning) battery is too dead to get the engine to start again and consider the cigarette lighter plug could be the reason
. . so I call triple AAA and the fellow puts his little quick gadget to test and tells me the battery is okay just low charged,
but I need to take it to a service center to have it recharged because the "surface charge" of just running the car isn't sufficient to charge it on its own.
I wonder though if I were to drive it long enough for hours without stopping it, if that's really true, especially if I were to drive a good 120 miles with less than 1 stop on the freeway.
So like the convenient cheap ass that I am,
I went to the nearest battery testing place which is Bridgestone/Firestone service center (after all they got good deals on general service like oil changes and what-not with their credit card package)
nevermind Firestone tire manufacturers had a lawsuit and a recall awhile back in 2001 because of faulty tires '
the alternator needs replaced . . . "The alternator drains the battery too fast"
- "LOW OUTPUT & OPEN DIODES"
- along with the battery (BTW it's a 6 year battery, that's 5 years old . . which should be still under warranty, though I didn't buy the battery nor have a receipt on it)
NEEDLESS to say . . . I have little trust in these places. . .
a new alternator (price $252.50) + labor ($56.00) is $308.50 from THEM . .
there's better bargains elsewhere . . . I'm sure of it.
Advice about getting the best deal on an alternator would be much appreciated. If memory service NAPA may still sell remanufactured alternators for a lot less than $252.50.
Advice about how much longer I can run my car without replacing the alternator would be needed, considering yesterday after I got the triple A jump and let the car run for awhile, driving it for awhile, I HAD NO PROBLEM starting and stopping and driving the car SEVERAL TIMES yesterday. So is there a chance this is an auto repair scam or not?