Advance Alternators - Diesel Forum

bigredflatbed · 01-20-2008, 07:15 PM

Has anyone ever used alternators from advance auto? Are they reliable? I got stuck on the road and had no choice but I really want to know if I have a decent alternator or not.

**bugman** · 01-20-2008, 07:34 PM

In my opinion anything that is rebuilt is a crap shoot. It may last and then it might fail in a couple of days. I once went through 3 rebuilt alternators before I Finlay got one that would work right. I also found that if you have a local automotive electrical shop that will rebuild one for you that it will outlast any of the part store ones. For some reason they take a little more time and check out everything along with having a local reputation to keep up.

Jim

bigredflatbed · 01-20-2008, 07:38 PM

Normally I do not play the rebuilt game at all but at 8:00 at night in a small town you will take what you can get.

NEG297F · 01-20-2008, 07:51 PM

which alternator did hey sell you, was in a Palladiem box or a world wide box. If it was a Palladiem was the box red or gold. I worked parttime there for about years. In general the Palladiems are pretty good, just make sure that your batteries are in good shape and you don't have any grounds in your electrical systm. Make sure you make a xerox copy of your reciept or scan it on the computer if you print it out. As long as you have a copy of the reciept there is o problem returnng a few years down the road if it goes bad and the original thermal paper reciepts fade

mgraveman · 01-20-2008, 07:52 PM

I've never had one last more than about 40k miles, and had several fail immediately or within a week.

kazavelli · 01-20-2008, 08:37 PM

just my .02 but other than NAPA rebuilt I'd shy away from the whole bit. Even NAPA's can wear out prematurely, but at least in my experiences with them I've only paid for one alternator back in 99 and have been getting free replacements ever since no questions asked. On the 94-97's the pulley arm is offset from the factory for some reason, and so I've become accustomed to alternators and the idlers on each side of it going out a lot. I've turned into a mobile parts warehouse for this pickup because of crap like that.

**DIESELDUTTON** · 01-20-2008, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigredflatbed

Has anyone ever used alternators from advance auto? Are they reliable? I got stuck on the road and had no choice but I really want to know if I have a decent alternator or not.

I put one on about 2 1\2 years ago with no problems at all about 35k miles. Watch, it will probably catch on fire tomorrow and burn my truck to the water line

. I have not had any problems with anything from advanced powers steering pump, steering box and alternator. Good luck

Frank

mgraveman · 01-21-2008, 09:49 AM

I should say that Advance is no better or worse than any of the other ones, with the exception of NAPA.

I've bought a lot of stuf from Car Quest, LOTS from Advance, Auto Zone, O'Reilly's, and NAPA. Now, I almost exclusively purchase from the dealer, or NAPA if there is much of a price difference. I have not yet had to replace a part that I bought from the dealer. I always figure if the first one lasted a quarter million miles, the next one should too and that truck won't be around me when the new part finally fails.

I just don't have time to work on my truck all the time, and my vehicles have been more reliable since I quit using the parts stores junk.

**finallygotanIDI** · 01-21-2008, 04:28 PM

may work for 2 days, or 2 years. seen them both ways

bigredflatbed · 01-21-2008, 08:38 PM

I normally only buy from the dealser but when the dealer is closed and the closest Napa is 40 miles away and closed even I will use what I can get.