Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 14:37:11 -0500
Reply-To: Chris Mills <scmills@TNTECH.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris Mills <scmills@TNTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: AutoZone
In-Reply-To: <19E3C79B.05FCA8E9.0A2D3458@aol.com>
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>Three years ago my alternator failed 500 miles from where I started and
>700 miles from what was to become home with my wife, two cats, a dog and a
>whole bunch of stuff in the van in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. With
>both batteries nearly dead the van limped into an Autozone that had a
>rebuilt unit with a lifetime warranty. One hour and a jump start later we
>were back on the road. I'd rather replace parts with OEM or better so
>buying parts from Autozone was not usually my first choice, but in the
>middle of nowhere one learns to adjust preferences.
As a former (starving college student) employee of a small town Tennessee
Advance Auto we saw ALOT of alternators come back in short order. Same goes
for most of the electrical parts. Many of the same problems were found with
Auto Zone's parts per conversations with friends that worked there.
Beware of the supermarket FLAPS. If the successful mechanics won't use them
then beware.
If you do use them have the parts tested before you go out the door with
them. Inspect and compare your old part against their new part for size and
shape. Sometimes the store catalog is much more general than the vehicle's
requirements. In fact I would be inclined to pay the core charge and keep
the OEM alternator when I bought a (typically generic) FLAPS replacement.
Generally an alternator has a regulator/diode/bearing failure. I don't
think many have windings failures. You can rebuild your old alternator and
put it back into service if you like and keep the FLAPS alternator on hand
for a temp spare. A rebuild may cost you as little as $20 for diodes or a
bearing or two.
Many rebuilt alternators were dead right out of the box, many more came
back in about a year, and a few keep going, going, going.
Same goes for starters.
Don't get me wrong, I have put alot of super market FLAPS parts on my cars
with good results. Once you see the inner workings of these operations then
you realize that you might be better off with repairing your alternator
than giving it up in exchange for an alternator of unknown origins.
I saw NEW Chinese rotors that were thinner than the customer's 200K mile
rotors and thinner than the minimum thickness spec. I have seen all sorts
of dead electrical parts that were "new". Buyer beware.
Chris M. <"Busbodger" of "TEAM SLOWPOKE">
Cookeville, Tennessee
ICQ# 5944649
scm9985@tntech.edu
'78 VW Westfalia (67 HP -> that is...67 Hamster Power)
'65 Beetle - Type IV powered
'99 CR-V AWD station wagon
'81 CB900 Custom moto-chickle
2.5 Corvair engines for my Trans-vair Conversion