Lethaldosage423

So my alternator took a dump on me today....

so i got some new tires for my car and figured before i put them on, lets have some fun!
so i had a night of burnouts and fun

the next day i got my tires put on and on my way home i heard a humming

it honestly sounded like i had a little blower on there lol but i knew it was my alternator. i felt it and it was vibrating a lot so i figured it was the bearing but it was still charging but i knew the final blow was coming

i got up this morning on my way to work drove to the end of my neighborhood and my radio died...
this happens a few times with my shaker 500 so i turned off the car, and opend the door. closed the door and no power

my parents came down and we jumped my car, it started and i took the negative terminal off the battery and the car instantly died

we hooked her back up and jumped her again and it gave us just enough juice to get on the driveway.


but we couldnt get her out of park, my guess was because the tail lights were not coming on due to lack of power so we had to use the little bypass switch.

so im driving the old minivan at the moment...not so fun

anyway
ive been looking at motorcraft ones but they are over $350
some cheaper ones are like $95 after i send in my old one

but my mum thinks we can fix it as most of the ones sold are re furbished..
something about changing the bearing and brushes and cleaning it..idk..i just want it fast


Any input on fixing it or buying a new one is appreciated

you dont realize how much you love your car till you are with out it for a day or 2

thanks for the help!

bigray327

Been there, done that. It's cool how these cars load shed so you can at least get where you're going.

Forget refurbished ones... Ford wants $350+ for those, too. Get yourself a PA Performance alternator, and the associated 4AWG wire upgrade. Better (puts out more amperage) and cheaper, it's a no-brainer. Linky.

Nuke

Although I've had only 2 experiences in my entire 38+ years of driving and over 12 cars, those 2 experiences were with rebuilt alternators and both worked well for a long time. However, with the electronics in our Stangs todays I'd be leary of going with a rebuilt. I like the one in the link above from AM and would probably look around for other new, high quality alternators and go that route and just be done with it.

Just out of curiosity, are you running a high power amp or other aftermarket heavy load equipment? The # of alternator failures on the forum seems unusually high for cars less than 5 years old and under 100,000 miles. For the 2 failures I mentioned above, 1 occured at 110,000 miles and the other at 205,000 miles. Both were on separate vehicles.

Kotobuki

This is what I did, and what I think everyone here SHOULD do, when this becomes an issue for them. Open your Yellow Pages or Google and find an Alternator shop in your town. Call them, make sure they have the parts to rebuild your alternator, tell them what your issue with it is, and get a quote. Then take it in, have them rebuild it for you. Shouldn't take but a couple hours.

This cost me a whopping $56.43, and I got to support a local small business. I should qualify this by saying the only thing that needed to be replaced in my alternator was the diode pack. The max cost for rebuild, if everything had been shot would still have only been $140.

bigray327

Yeah, the regulators are internal on these, and definitely the weak link.

Wally39

Heck, I've been through 2 stock alternators. Bearings went out. Black carbon everywhere. This time I went with PA Performance 130 amp alternator. This one seams better built. It just makes you mad when you spend that kind of money on an alternator and it doesn't last!

Lethaldosage423

Thanks for the input guys!
im going to take it into the shop tomorow where i work and ask my boss to take a look at it and see if its worth re building

my car does have 72,000 miles on her and i am running a 760 watt amp with one twelve (Had two but it was too much bass)

i also have an ipod hookup that is connected through a harness and uses the aux button on my radio

those are the only extra power things i have at the moment.

ill let you know what my boss says tomorow and ill see where that takes me!

thanks again