Threw a new alternator at a Ford Focus instead of rebuilding the old one, kind of regret it

Last Thursday I had this 2014 Ford Focus come in with a dead battery and the alternator whining like crazy. I normally rebuild alternators for customers to save them some cash, usually around $80 for parts and my time. But this one had a weird aftermarket pulley that looked beat to hell, and I figured swapping in a reman unit for $150 would be faster and safer. Got it all buttoned up, car started fine, voltage looked good at 14.2V. Then two days later the customer calls saying the battery light flickers on and off when they hit a bump. Tested it today and the new alternator has a loose connector housing, must be a bad reman from the factory. Now I gotta pull it back out and warranty swap it, should have just spent the extra hour rebuilding the old one. Has anyone else had bad luck with reman alternators from the parts stores lately?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabethn5627d ago

lol I feel this pain so hard. I did the exact same thing with my old Tacoma, threw in a reman alternator from AutoZone and it crapped out in a month with a loose diode pack. Now my truck sits in the driveway like a lawn ornament while I wait for the warranty replacement to show up. Shoulda just rebuilt the original Denso, woulda cost me a pizza and a six pack of beer. reman parts are such a gamble nowadays, half the time they're just someone else's junk with a fresh coat of paint.

king.stella27d ago

That Autozone reman alternator story is basically a rite of passage for anyone with an older Toyota. I swear half the parts on those shelves are just someone else's failed rebuilds. When you pulled the old Denso apart, did you see if the stator windings were actually shot or was it just the brushes and voltage regulator that needed replacing? Because on those 90s era models, it's usually just the regulator that fails and the core is still perfectly fine.

norathomas27d ago

Wait, have you ever actually opened up one of those reman alternators and seen what's inside? I did once with a CarQuest one for my Camry and there was a washer rattling around loose in the casing, like someone just dropped it in there and sealed it up. I mean, idk if it's just me but I've had way better luck just hunting down a used OEM alternator at the junkyard and rebuilding it myself. Plus you get that weird satisfaction of knowing the parts actually came from a real Denso instead of some random factory in Mexico. Your Tacoma sitting there while you wait for warranty stuff is rough though, my buddy's F150 did the same dance with a reman starter last winter and he just gave up and bought a brand new one off RockAuto.