Replace Alternator every 2 Years??????

[Mart]

I went out for a lunchtime jaunt today and it was freakin HOT out 36-37C, the temps were really up there, 238 oil temp, no higher but does anyone know if this would affect my alternator this is the second one that seems to start with a whine and the Volt drop down to 13.5 (AVG) at one point it flashed RED 11.2 while sitting at a light with the AC on.

I replaced this two years ago. Does anyone else go through alternators.

Mart

 

[Tuna]

This does seem to be a common failure on the early C4's. A friend of mine with an 86 used to carry a spare alternator with him everywhere just for that reason. Then, he upgraded the alternator to one used on later C4's like mine and hasn't had a problem since. I believe GM makes a kit that changes the wiring harness at the alternator to do just that but I can't remember the details. Someone else needs to jump in here now with the details about this change.

 

[Vettefan87]

Yes, heat is havoc on our alternators. That is why I would never buy a cheap rebuilt unit, just to have it go out again. I would keep a close eye on your voltages. That would majorly suck to get stuck straned somewhere.

 

[Mart]

This is one major PITA, I made it to the Chev dealership after work today .

Voltage seemed to hold steady around 13.5 all the way home unless I stopped at a light then the voltage dropped.

When I got to the dealership I shut her down went inside to pick up a new TPS, and enquired about prices on an ACdelco alternator and an ACDelco battery.

I paid for the TPS, went outside and she will not start, voltage reads 10.5-11.0.

So back inside I go
"New battery please, and I will take the alternator too"

"Alternater will be here tomorrow sir"

"OK great, can I borrow a tool or two?"

"Hmm, uhhh well, uhhh we don't give tools out sir, Keep it quiet here is my socket set"

"This kid was great"

"A million Thanks to the parts Dept at Sheridan Chev in Pickering ON. The guys there have been pretty good" Service desk is a different story, from experience"

Put the battery in and she fired right up, zipped home and she's gonna sit til I get the alternator in, hopefully an ACDelco Alternator will last longer than a "reman"

Mart

 

[PLRX]

This is funny, last friday while sitting on a red light with the A/C on I noticed my radar detector reading "low voltage", I looked at the volts gauge and it read in the lows 12V (the battery is a week old).

I ordered a new alternator, maybe the old battery was not the problem

 

[c4cruiser]

Heat is an alternator's worst enemy. With the outside ambient air temps that high and coupled with high underhood temps from the coolant temps you mentioned, alternators can cook rapidly (especially some of the less expensive rebuilt or remanufactured units.

A few years ago, I read an article in either Corvette Fever or Vette about a company that had developed a small exhaust fan that mounted to the upper wheelwell panels and drew hot underhood air to the outside. IIRC, they looked like PC power supply cooling fans. They were small enough that three of them could be mounted per side.

 

[Mart]

I hear ya there, I have now toasted 2 alternators, both when it was hotter than He!!ad

I shall see what a "Good" alternater and a new battery does..

I like the fan idea, i'm gonna put some thought into that one.

 

[Moonunit 451]

Two years? You lucky SOB! I went through FIVE in a day a couple weeks back ad Don't want to talk about it. That was a year and a half from the previous change. I kept the lifetime warranty paperwork this time :eyerole

However, just a few days ago I got a low V readout at a stoplight with the A/C, parking, driving lights on, idle 7-800, blip it up and out goes the indicater :crazy BTW MART knock it off with those foriegn temp readings already, and talk American :L

 

[LT4man]

That is some dealership that you have there. Pretty cool of them to loan you enough tools to put the battery in.

I remember seeing and reading about those fans that fit in the wheelwells. If I remember correctly, they did not draw much amperage and really dropped the temperature under the hood. Maybe you could start with doing one side and if that was successful, do the other side too.

I believe that the AC Delco alternator you are buying will do just fine. AC Delco seems to have very good quality control.

Good Luck!
Save The Wave!

 

[WayneLBurnham]

My C3 is no better - on about the fourth....

...been moving up in quality too. I treat them (and water pumps too) like tires and spark plugs - long duration replaceables. The one-wire conversions don't seem to offer any real advantages from what I can see either.

My present one seemed to be going too, but from the higher voltage showing at the alternator versus at the gauge or, most importantly, the battery, I suspect an annoying short in a positive cable somewhere for a nice refreshing change! I tend to get brute force on basic wiring once I've done major re-wiring after an old mopar I had that I never could find the ground problem on So tomorrow or Wednesday it gets one look at the several main wires then it gets three nice new 8 gauge leads - one a positive directly from the alternator stud all the way to the positive battery terminal, and two ground wires to frame (one from the alternator and one from the negative post.)

I did notice something odd on the temperature front once this time. The engine had just started (each time a miracle! :eyerole ) not 3-5 minutes before. The alternator itself was so hot I couldn't touch it. The valve cover and even the metal upper radiator hose (and the radiator) were both still touchable - as was the bracket to the radiator. I held my hand a fraction of an inch off the coated header and it wasn't that hot at all either. On a hunch I very quickly touched the header itself and sure enough, even it was only a seemingly a little hotter than the alternator! (Be careful doing that on even coated headers - once fully warmed up you can cook meat so fast you don't even feel it - you smell it first...:cry ) I have to assume the poor alternator has been pushed near the failure point regardless of the readings and I will get a 100A one wire rebuild kit with bearings from Jegs for $40 for it just in case - although it currently is not the main problem. This is backed up by it actually charging better both when it first starts and when it's going slower.

Yeah, alternators are cheap things. The chains have them from $40-80 and all purdied and gussied up 'uns in chrome and billet aluminum and such from catalog houses, in one wire, in 100A, 140A and even 160A are available at under $200. MSD has even gone all "systems 12" and offers some thing for like $350 that's guaranteed for 20 billion rpm and till past the end of time.

It's crazy to wipe the reliability of your ride on a now fairly cheap accessory.

---------

You know, those engine bay exhaust to wheel well fans are a great idea. I might have to look and see if that's doable on mine.

 

[Mart]

Yup, I'm starting to agree with ya on the "you get what you pay for" deal.

I guess I will find out in two years as long as it's hot right through the summers.

Oh, hey MoonUnit (37 degree Celsius = 98.6 degree Fahrenheit), I promiss to do the calculation for ya next time.:crazy

Here's another thought, how about using header wrap on those stock manifolds and on the front Y pipe, they're just like like shorty headers anyway but that has to be a great source for the heat.

Mart

 

[WhalePirot]

Here's another thought, how about using header wrap on those stock manifolds and on the front Y pipe.

Because, I applied properly, with the high temp wrap paint, you have increased the mass of the unit and, therefore, the heat retention, is why. Wanna know how I know this?

Improperly applied, and perhaps even if it is done right, the cloth can hold moisture and greatly speed the rust-away process.

When I wrapped my coated long tubes and Y-pipe (not recommended in the literature, BTW), the only thing that changed was the longer cool-down time. Same deal with the starter blanket. Ken and I have 'em in garage storage, now.

Airflow is the best protection. I was considering thin, 12-14" fans, pulling air out through the 'gills', but exactly where that air would originate, is the next question.

Hopefully with the new Delco, the alternator fan moves the air the right way.

 

[Vettefan87]

Wow I am still running my original that I have had in it since I bought the car nearly two years ago, and I have also jumped a couple of cars with it, I'm sure that can't be too good on the alternator. well *knock on wood* I guess I am lucky...

 

[Lninety8]

Most horror stories come from non OEM alternators. I've heard it plenty and unfortunately have learned the hard way myslef. Some things you gotta' stick with OEM, and IMO this is one of them. 2 cheapos cost more than 1 good one!

 

[tyrel]

I don't know why the early C4 alternator is such an issue, maybe the thing was poorly designed in the first place. In the past I had more trouble with the alternator than any other part on the car. If heat were the culprit, then the later C4 alternators would also suffer the same fate, so I don't think heat has anything to do with it, since all cars can get hot. BTW, the catalogs stopped selling the underhood air extractors years ago, I guess because they didn't work.

Anyway, it would save a lot of hassle if you buy the best alternator you can find or go to an alternator shop. If you buy a rebuilt from a chain store, don't be surprised if it only lasts a few months, they are notorious for falling apart. My experience with remanufactured has been only a little better. Every city has an alternator shop that can put in heavy-duty components into your alternator like bearings, brushes, rectifier bridge, and they stand behind their work because they have to. This is the route I took, I bought a cheapie alternator just for the housing, took it to an alternator shop, and had them beef it up. It's been a few years and I have had no alternator problems.

 

[C-4 Now]

There is a company in this area called Quick Start that sells alt/starter parts nationwide. Has done upgrade work for GM. Any how they make an alternator rebuild-upgrade kit for the C-4 130 alternators called the Iceberg. When I bought my 89 C-4 10+ years ago in the fall with 30,000 on odometer. In spring when I went to get it out Alternator was bad I was ticked. Any way my normal rebuilder got me one of these. No problems since!!! I don't know if there available everywhere but I do no some of turbo buick shops sell them and some other high performance alternator suppliers. If anyone cares I can check and see if there is a list of rebuilders using them in you area. Ike

 

[JimVette]

I had an '87 about 10 years ago that used to eat starters and alternators. It did not matter if OEM or not. So I just started to buy them at AutoZone with lifetime warranty. I could change the alternator in about 10 minutes and the starter in about 20 minutes by the time the ex took it with her into the sunset. Good riddance to both.

 

[Moonunit 451]

There is a company in this area called Quick Start that sells alt/starter parts nationwide. Has done upgrade work for GM. Any how they make an alternator rebuild-upgrade kit for the C-4 130 alternators called the Iceberg. When I bought my 89 C-4 10+ years ago in the fall with 30,000 on odometer. In spring when I went to get it out Alternator was bad I was ticked. Any way my normal rebuilder got me one of these. No problems since!!! I don't know if there available everywhere but I do no some of turbo buick shops sell them and some other high performance alternator suppliers. If anyone cares I can check and see if there is a list of rebuilders using them in you area. Ike

Wish I knew about this a couple weeks back. http://www.alternatorparts.com/

 

[Mart]

OK, I got everything back together, and the new alternator has a smaller pulley on it, and the volts are reading 13.5. They used to read 14.5 normal.

Would the smaller pulley change this, and if so, if the idler pulley was close to the limit mark befor would it be worse now.

Mart

 

[WayneLBurnham]

In general, the output voltage will not change, but

when it kicks in and at what low rpm it won't is varied a lot by the pulley size. Put a large enough pulley on the alternator or a small enough one on the drive (crank) and you won't start charging to any degree until 2500 or even more rpm, although I've never seen anything that extreme. It is easy to get it wrong enough so it won't charge at idle unless you move the idle speed up to something annoying though.

The thing is you really don't need your alternator to turn faster than necessary to generate sufficient current or it's harsh on bearings and such. This is worse if you turn 5-6K plus frequently, especially on a V-belt for some reason I don't understand. Most high end "lifetime" parts house offerings come with a performance test sheet, typically showing you reach 90% of peak amperage by 3-3500 rpm with the pulley on it.

I ate 2 or 3 alternators - all aftermarket, but only one a cheapy parts house type - until I put the super large rpm-reducing pulley from Moroso on it. I have just gone through a bad experience with a March pulley reduced accessory rpm kit and converted largely back to the steel pulleys, but I have yet to change the now standardish diameter March pulley on the alternator and need to do that.