I had to replace my alternator last week (under warranty). And three days after I put the replacement alternator on, my battery is dead again. Today I will be putting on my 3rd alternator in a year.

When I got my old alternator tested, it said that everything was working fine on it, but it just wasn't putting back any voltage. My battery is an Optima Red Top Dry Cell Battery that is less than a year old.

Am I just getting crappy alternators or what else could be causing my problem???

Steve

 

Could be the battery. Did you have it load tested and charge rate tested?

Long before Optima atarted selling gel-cell batteries for vehicle, I was having them (gel cells) fail just like any other battery, and for mostly the same reasons, and in about the same life span. Gel cells are fine, but aren't any more immune to failure than a wet cell battery.

Don't overlook an obvious possibility just because it is only a year old and/or just because it has a clever name, like "Altima", or "Imprezza".

 

I hope you're also charging the battery up completely before starting the car. If you're just installing the new alternator then jump starting the car you'll be overheating/stressing the alternator big time.

 

Check to make sure you dont have a parasitic drag. Those can kill an alternator pretty quick.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I think I might've found the problem. I had the guy at one store test the alternator on one of those portable machines while the car was running. It read that I only put back like 11V. So I took the alternator off and took it to another store and had him charge the alternator seperately on the bench. It read fine at 15V. So then I thought that it must be the connection from the alternator back to the battery.

I bought a HUGE 4 guage wire and replaced the old like 12 guage wire.

Today I took the car back up to the store and had the guy check it again while running and he said I pulled 14V at idle and a max of 18.5V which is good or as he said "You kicked it's ***!"

Steve

 

Im going through alternators too suddenly. When i switched from Serp Belt to V-belt, I obviouselly changed alternators, with one i KNEW was working good (had on other car with the V-belts) and it died in like 5 days. I got another one, a rebuilt Delco, and it worked ok for 4-5 days, and crapped out. Now im getting it replaced and wondering why my car is eating alternators?

Could it have anything to do with how i re-wired my alternator from the old serp-belt to the V-belt style? I cut off the plug from the old alternator, and wired in the V-belt plug and plugged it in. the lug on the back of the alt runs to the post that runs to the 12V side of the battery. Im also getting horrid feedback through my field wire, enough to keep the ECU ON even when i turn the key off, so the car stays running. I unplug the alternator, and it dies.