4th Gen Aftermarket Alternator Options

[burninator]

Wife's 2006 SR5 V6 battery light came on today. It has 150K and we just got it 4 months ago with little maintenance history. The battery is a year old from Costco.

Took it to the auto parts store and they measured 518 CCA from my battery (it's rated at 640 CCA). The alternator test results said no voltage, and I had him run the test twice. I don't know a ton about cars, but the belt seems fine and I'm left thinking the alternator needs replacing.

I have a charger, so can re-up the battery every night. This is a daily driver, so the replacement needs to be quick. Mailing something off for a rebuild won't work.

Interested in options from the board about replacements.

 

[rcdeppen]

Buy a new OEM alternator from the dealer. I wouldn't trust a reman. Price them online. Not cheap but a new stock alternator will go another 100k+ miles. Piece of mind my man. How much is it worth to know your wife isn't gonna be stranded because you tried to save a buck. The battery charging idea is terrible BTW. Your gonna drop a cell and ruin your battery doing that. Ultimately costing you even more money.

 

[burninator]

Buy a new OEM alternator from the dealer. I wouldn't trust a reman. Price them online. Not cheap but a new stock alternator will go another 100k+ miles. Piece of mind my man. How much is it worth to know your wife isn't gonna be stranded because you tried to save a buck. The battery charging idea is terrible BTW. Your gonna drop a cell and ruin your battery doing that. Ultimately costing you even more money.

Thanks for chiming in. What part of that idea is terrible in your opinion? Charging it at all? Charging it 10 times? Not sure what you mean.

 

[BCfish]

Why is charging the battery so bad?? Maybe not a lot of amps but a trickle charge or decent smart charger wouldn't let that happen I'm pretty sure. I charge a ton of my batteries for my RV and my project vehicles that don't get driven often enough.

 

[MikeInNH]

I haven't bought anything but reman alternators and starters for over 40 years...and not once did they ever leave me stranded. Sometimes the reman is BETTER then OEM. I'll agree there are some poor reman companies out there..but there are plenty of good ones also.

 

[Gdmeadors]

FWIW, when I had to replace my starter on my 97 4Runner years ago under an extended warranty the dealer installed an OEM Toyota remanufactured starter. Same with my Ford Ranger alternator. It was the OEM alternator that was rebuilt. Cheaper than new and much better than parts from China.

 

[rcdeppen]

Thanks for chiming in. What part of that idea is terrible in your opinion? Charging it at all? Charging it 10 times? Not sure what you mean.

Nothing wrong with charging a battery at all. It's the continued running of the truck on a know bad alternator that's not good. Without an alternator your going to damage a cell when you keep drawing it down below 12 volts which happens much soone then you think.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

The issue isn't charging the battery per say. Its Deep Cycling the battery, automotive batteries are not designed to go below about 12.0v regularly (anything below 12.0v is considered "discharged," where as 12.6v is considered "good".)

Having a battery that is constantly discharged and then charged to full is called Deep Cycling and in batteries that are not designed for that it is damaging to them.

 

[burninator]

Thanks.