Okay so I blew my alt less then a month ago at 81k miles and I threw in a reman alternator and then yesterday night on the way home it blew again I have 83k miles now. What could be causing my alt to be overloaded and killed? Could it be a possible bad Ecu?

When the alternator died I lost power steering, abs, and traction control and coasted off the freeway. When I parked the car I noticed a strong electrical burning smell from the back of my car and nothing from under the hood. Also my car did not throw a single cell code the whole time. Does anyone in San Diego have a OBDII scaner to check if any codes where thrown off?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

even if the alternator died you should have still had power steering. untill the battery died, this happened to my old lincoln, the alternator would fry and id depend on battery power for the little bit it last (to run the engine not the power steering part)

 

I had the alternator overload issue and it did a lot of damage. I too had a 2 remans put in and they didn't last long. The problem did not go away until I bought a used factory alternator and put it in. Apparently there is something in the reman process that is being missed.

I got my factory one with 6,000 miles on it from a salvage yard on ebay for like $60.00.

 

Had the same problem with aftermarket alternators too.

 

Yeah that is what happened. I was running on pretty much battery from Inland Empire all the way to El Cajon and I'm located in Chula Vista. Power steering just died as soon as I hit the 163. Pop started it and then drove it another 10 miles but nothing electronic would work (headlights taillights brake lights hazards nothing) and this was in the middle of the night too so my friend was just following close behind me making sure no one would fly into me blindly.


Sure I can replace the alternator again but I want to know WHY it blew even if it doesn't blow again.

 

I found a broken off ground just not on my car. Probably blew off during the drift event I was at that night.

Does anyone know what the grounding on the exhaust is for? Rear tail light harness?

 

static electricity. If your having problems be carefully. Driving my car while the alternator was screwing up cost me an ABS Modulator (over $2,000.00), all my interior fuses, drivers side door window switch, and reverse lights.

 

Would be helpful if we could get info on which brand(s) of reman alternators folks are having longevity issues with so they can be avoided.

If you put a new one in, it is always a good idea to test. Testing is easy to do. Lots of thread content on the topic here.

 

It was tested. I was running a FD alternator and they are pretty much strait drop in replacement.

I'm going to buy another reman alt but with 12 months warranty so I can have some peace of mind.

 

Losing [electric] power steering in the '8 is part of the systemic "graceful degradation" when available generated/stored power is less than nominal level, as it is when you lose the alternator. Our ECU is pretty darn smart, in this case saving power for more critical functions.

 

My reman was re manufactured again under its one year warranty and then failed again and I didn't mess with getting it warrantied again I just bought the used one and I have never had a problem. There is something that gets damaged internally that gets partially fixed during the reman process but it doesn't last long. My used OEM is running like a champ and it is from a 2006 so maybe there was a change in part numbers or something.

 

Your alt was under warranty but it died and they rebuilt for free then died again?

 

True. If the alternator winding itself is innately weak remanufacturing won't catch it, as it touches only that external to the winding core. Best to move on to another one.

 

I just bought a used one from www.partsgroup.com The guy told me that are all bench-tested.

 

Yep, my factory alternator overcharged and was misdiagnosed and so the factory battery and a new replacement were ruined as a result. The drivers side door switch, ABS Unit, and a few other electrical items were damaged. My extended warranty covered everything and my factory alternator was rebuilt locally because they didn't wanna cover the fact that the alternator overcharged. But I didn't care because it was very expensive and they covered 99% of it.

So the rebuilt one lasted less than a year and thanks to my Scangauge II I was able to see when it began to fail again and catch it before anything was damaged. So I had it rebuilt again and it lasted almost another year and then I noticed this time that my voltage would drop suddenly or spike suddenly so I decided to forget rebuilding a third time and just got a slightly used one.

 

Sounds like a plan. I know the guy who is selling that alt. I'll just give him a call.

 

Although if you have time, search around, I got mine with only 6,000 on it for like $50-60.00.

 

My car is my daily and I need it asap I just paid him and he already shipped it out for me. All within 15 minutes.

I'm also going to add a bunch of grounds to my car to help prevent such disasters from happening again.

 

A bad battery can kill an alternator. A bad alternator can kill a battery. Either can kill other systems in the car. A bad ground usually will kill each or both. If the problem persists I'd say it's a grounding issue somewhere.

 

Great! Yeah I have been throwing around the idea of doing that myself.