Who makes a good reman alternator?

[N8N_99xj]

Don't have a local rebuilder; my alternator seized up this past fall and I replaced it with a reman from Carquest I believe.

Today I came out of a store and fired up the Heep, had headlights (high-wattage H4s) defrost, HVAC fan (speed 3), rear defog, and front and rear wipers on (not unusual for the weather in which I choose to drive the Heep over my car.) System voltage was something like 11.0V at idle under those conditions whole with no accessories on it's more like 14.1V.

I'm assuming that my nice shiny new alternator is taking a dump, correct?

Battery is a couple year old Optima. It tested above spec last time I had access to a battery tester maybe a month ago. A lot of short trips since, but still.

Anyone have any recommendations for a store/brand that doesn't suck? Alternately (heh) if you have a known good OEM one in your parts pile LMK.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

NAPA's "NAE" line of alternators are high quality rebuilds done either here or at a state of the art facility in mexico they just built in 2008 or 2009, and all of them come with a lifetime warranty. I've yet to see one fail since the new facility was built and i've been managing a napa store since 2005.

alternators hate dirt. if it gets salty or muddy in the winter where you drive, get some electrical cleaner and spray inside the vents of the alternator and till it starts running out clear. let it sit for awhile to dry before you try and start it. doing this once a month or so during the wet seasons will make it last much longer.

 

[N8N_99xj]

well I stopped by Carquest, they test on the vehicle at 1500 RPM and it checks out fine there (so no warranty I doubt)... really falls down below 1K RPM though. This is the first time I think I've had the full complement of accessories on since I replaced alt and it is just dropping lower than I remember from before. With all accessories on and vehicle idling my ScanGauge shows voltage in low 11s and HVAC blower is definitely slowing down. Battery still checks out above spec (Carquest guy checked it on his tester before checking alt.)

One odd thing was voltage was dropping below 9 when engaging starter according to his tester. Starter going? It is original to vehicle. Never had any problems with it other than sometimes it starts a little slow when it's really cold out (but always fires) Got 5-90's 4AWG (I think?) cable kit when I got the vehicle as stock cables were destroyed by leaky battery.

Is this just an artifact of small gauge wiring into the passenger compartment perhaps? I guess I will test voltage at battery later, got to warm up a bit, I can't believe it's snowing this late in the year in VA...!

 

[GrimmJeeper]

could be a heavy load on the starter, pulling a ton of juice out of the battery at start and the alternator has to work double time to keep up. that is a possible symptom of bad starter cable or a failing starter. with all stock accessories aside from the big headlights i'd doubt you should see that much of a draw on the system.

have you checked and cleaned your battery to chassis and chassis to engine grounds?

 

[N8N_99xj]

the starter drawing too much current theory makes a lot of sense. I am running 5W40 synth and it's barely below freezing so I don't think it's oil drag, maybe starter going bad. Definitely not cable, I have 5-90's whole kit and put grease on all the connections when I installed. Guess when it warms up I'll pull the starter and have it bench tested and in the meantime keep an eye on voltmeter behavior, e.g. does it happen again at a stop light after a long highway run or only after a cold start.

 

[md21722]

I would check the brushes. The brushes wear out over time and can be changed. Someone who was dishonest could have bought a reman at CQ, swapped the new brushes with their old brushes and then returned the reman for full credit.