My friend's checking out this 2003 I35 to buy. Has 78,000 miles. Seller says he bought the car from Enterprise rental 2 years ago with 48,000 miles. Just recently he had the alternator and battery replaced. Do alternators go out on 5.5gen? Seems kinda premature.

Dr J

 

um...yes.....

 

1st mistake was buying it from a rental car place. As Jeff Foxworthy said about getting the additional insurance for a rental, "this car's gonna see more airtime than a skateboard at the X-Games." And, "buying a used rental car is like going to a house of ill repute looking for a wife."

 

Everything man made will go bad my friend. Just a question of when and where.

 

Yes...I have a 2k GLE and the alternator went out late last year. It's best to replace the alternator, belts, and the battery all at once.

 

yes it is normal for the alt to go bad....

 

Alternator went out on my '99 626 the first time at 42,000 miles. Too much Ford engineering going on at Mazda these days...

The original alternator lasted until 175,000 miles in my '90 Accord, still charging but a bearing was making noise and I decided to replace it before it went out.

I've got 125,100 miles on my Maxima, no idea if it still has the original alternator or not.

 

I did the alternator recall on my 97 around 120,000 miles too. So seeing a 5.5 gen with under 80k and 5 years have the alternator go bad seems strange and uncommon for a 5.5 gen.

Dr J