Alternator Failed Over The Weekend

[silvermistLS]

Hello everyone,

So my alternator went out on saturday while on my way to the beach. The battery light kept coming on, and when I shut the car off, it did not start back. 1 AAA call later, I had a jump start, and was on my way back to my house when bamm light started flikering/instrumentation acting up.. and again there I am on the side of the freeway.. so this time AAA towed me back to my house.

Called the dealership, and they wanted 380 for one (it's remanufactured) Because my uncle own a shop and gets the cost deal, I called them again with that info... Still 308.00!!!! My mechanic can get me one at (auto parts store) for 140.00.

Any of you have any experiences with the NON dealership alternators??? They still give you a 1 year warranty just like lexus... I think I'll go the 140 route.. over 300 is just tooo much.

[wwest]

Hello everyone,

So my alternator went out on saturday while on my way to the beach. The battery light kept coming on, and when I shut the car off, it did not start back. 1 AAA call later, I had a jump start, and was on my way back to my house when bamm light started flikering/instrumentation acting up.. and again there I am on the side of the freeway.. so this time AAA towed me back to my house.

Called the dealership, and they wanted 380 for one (it's remanufactured) Because my uncle own a shop and gets the cost deal, I called them again with that info... Still 308.00!!!! My mechanic can get me one at (auto parts store) for 140.00.

Any of you have any experiences with the NON dealership alternators??? They still give you a 1 year warranty just like lexus... I think I'll go the 140 route.. over 300 is just tooo much.

What year and current mileage...???

Most common long term, high mileage, failure mode of an alternator is the slip ring brushes, a $3-5 DIY item.

A bargain even if you hire a mechanic to remove/reinstall(***).

Early models had a "soft" metal for the slip ring contacts on the rear of the shaft and on mine ('92 LS then at 110,000) the slip ring brushes were only half gone but the slip rings were so worn that the steel shaft itself was showing.

*** There will be those "here" that will argue that like needlessly replacing the water pump along with the timing belt (since you're in there anyway) it would be best to buy the rebuilt alternator.

But then "rebuilt" might mean as little as steam cleaning and a $3.00 set of new slip ring brushes.

[silvermistLS]

mine is a 93... with only 119k miles. I'll have my mechanic look at it when he takes it out.. so these slip ring brushes.. are they sold anywhere? I thought there was no way of fixing the alternator...