what are the signs of the alt. going bad anyway, right now i have a buzzing noise that seems to be coming from either the alt or the belt... ut nothing else so far besides that buzzing the gets worse when i drive faster

 

It is very easy to over load these alternators. They cannot really keep up with all the accs. if your doing around town/stuck in traffic driving/crawling. Sometimes you need choose between the seat heaters and the rear defrost in the winter. For an alternator high output = heat = short life.

 

yeah, they did go with a different supplier of parts starting in 2002.. thats what a nissan tech told me.. he said 2001 was the last year of quality parts.. i dont know if thats true or not, but i believe the supplier thing is true

 

oh by the way, i had 2 alternators go on my pontiac.. the first time my car just wouldnt start.. then i got a jump, and 10 minutes later on the way home my lights inside started flickering like crazy.. my horn didnt work, and the car died right in front of my house.. the second time, the alternator started making a whining noise and i was told it was bad bearings.. now with my 2001 max with 99,000 miles, sometimes part of my interior lights wont be illuminated.. like those lights on the buttons that control where the heat and air go (face, feet, front defroster, rear defroster)... half of them wont light up sometimes, but not very often.. thats pretty much it... dying alternator?

 

Mine has 113,000 miles and is still going strong.

 

replaced at 110k miles or so....

 

Looks like mine is on the way since I got the e-brake and battery lights on last evening. I have close to 135K miles on the clock, so I guess I've been pretty lucky it didn't go on me sooner. What are the best prices out there? I've read some of you paid about $100 or so, but the cheapest I've found was $176.99 plus $61 (core) @ AutoZone.
Any pros and cons regarding Duralast?

 

hhmm i dont get why the fans need to come out..... cant figure that out, i never had to remove mine, and since the page wont load i cant see why it needs to come out.

 

Got 131K off the stock OEM. Replaced recently with a remanufactured OEM alternator ordered from DaveB (cost $300).

 

I got 175,000 out of the original alternator in my 1990 Accord. Still charging but the bearings were making noise so I replaced it before it went out completely. My 626, on the other hand, it was replaced at 43,000 miles and again at 125,000 miles. The 626 has a coolant overflow tank that is pressurized and after about a year, they leak (all of them in the exact same place-and not just for me, anyone who has owned a '98-02 626 V6 has the same problem-yet Mazda refuses to acknowledge a design defect) and spray hot coolant all over the accessory side of the engine.

Anyway, I don't know if my alternator is original, I bought my car used. It has 116,800 miles on it right now.

I wouldn't trust any rebuilt electrical parts from AutoZone-cheap prices usually mean a cheap rebuild with low quality parts. Their batteries are really good though. Go figure.

 

Finally done replacing the alternator. It was a pita to get to it, get it out, but it's all finished now! The brake and battery lights are gone now and it seems like everything is working as it should. Didn't have to replace any belts, pulleys, as everything else seemed to be in great shape. I wasn't worrying too much about replacing the battery either since I didn't drive the car enough to drain it completely. It is a fairly new battery as well. When I was done with all the work, I started the car up and thought I could smell burning rubber, so I hope I didn't tighten the belts too much.