Alternator and Idler Pulley Advice.

[VK56VD]

'99 Nissan Maxima SE 155k miles

My car is making a supercharger like sound under 30mph. Looks like it's either the bearing in the alternator or the idler pulley going out.

A few times I smelled a rubber burning odor. This means one of the bearings is freezing up and rubbing the belt.

There are also times when I turn my head lights on and the noise becomes even more apparent while parked.

This all points at the alternator but I'm not sure as one mechanic said it may also be the idler pulley.

I can get a WorldWide Alternator from Advance Auto Parts for whole sale price of $95. Anything you know of this particular brand?

I was considering getting the idler pulley from the dealer but even with my discount it comes out to $70 as it comes with the tensioner. The one at Advance Auto Parts is $20 (branded Factory Air).

If it weren't for the discount, I'd get the Denso alternator ($160)from RockAuto and Nissan OEM Idler Pulley from the dealer if it was less money, maybe even the Four Seasons or Gates from RockAuto.

Are these two items from Advance Auto Parts okay or should I stay away?

 

[nthach]

I thing World Wide is a Delco-Remy brand. They're OK to mediocre remans as I had an AC Delco reman in my car and it was a slopped together unit with cheap bearings and sloppily-soldered in brushes. I'm sure their GM and heavy-duty line up is better.

And I wouldn't use 4 Seasons or Factory Air parts. If you got access to a press, you can press out and press in a new bearing in your idler pulley if you're careful. I did with with my OEM Toyota idler pulley - I bought an NTN 6203 bearing from Grainger to replace it.

 

[RoadRaceJosh]

I'd get an automotive stethoscope so you can pinpoint the source of the noise. By your description I feel it's likely the alternator, but knowing for certain won't cost you much. Try the Lisle 52500 Mechanic's Stethoscope. Also, you might check to see if there are any local starter/alternator/generator repair shops around. It may cost you a little in time and effort, but if all you need are bearings you'll probably end up with a better alternator than some horrid remanufactured unit. I'll second nthach on replacing the idler bearing if you have the means.

 

[SAATR]

AC Delco and Remy separated some time ago, and Remy is now its own standalone company. They do own the Worldwide brand and remanufacture the bulk of their Worldwide brand alternators in Mexico, as do ACDelco, but in different reman facilities to different specs by different people. My experience in selling and installing these is that they are a good product with a low incidence of premature failure and few returns (those that do come back are usually do to misdiagnosis or installation issues). They have their share of duds, but are overall a good product.

As far as the pulley goes, get a Gates or Dayco and fuggitabowtit.

 

[onion]

I would take the belt off and feel the bearings. It'll probably be obvious enough where the noise is coming from... a noisy bearing will often feel loose and/or dry.

 

[Texan4Life]

Originally Posted By: onion
I would take the belt off and feel the bearings. It'll probably be obvious enough where the noise is coming from... a noisy bearing will often feel loose and/or dry.


+1 its easy to find out what the offending part is. Take the belt off and spin the pulleys by hand. If it is anything but smooth and quite, it needs to be replaced. Since you have the belt spin all the pulleys, you might find a problem early and be able to nip it in the bud.

I would buy the 20 dollar pulley. 2 pulleys i got from autozone for $19 (same pulley from everyone else just under different house brand names even rockauto)didn't fit right because of the stock bolt/washer. so I went to GM. $77 for an idler pulley!

I fixed it by putting a washer under stock bolt/washer so it no longer rubs the pulley. My old pulleys did not have press in bearings. These pulleys have two halves that are riveted together with a bearing in the middle. The autozone ones are running along just fine.

If you can press out your bearing I would do that and press in new Timken bearings.

As far as the alternator goes. I would get what AAP has with a lifetime warrety. I got the valuecraft alt reman with 1 yr warrenty from AZ that went toes up after a few years. For 15 more bucks I got a duralast new manufacture one with a lifetime warrenty.

AZ has always been good to me with lifetime warranties. over the years I have put drive shafts in my car 3 times now for free. Why my car eats drives shafts, I don't know. maybe the AZ one are [censored]. lol.

 

[VK56VD]

Lifetime Warranty is good but I would not want to utilize the warranty to wrench on the car for a lifetime on the same part.

 

[VK56VD]

Ordered a Denso alternator. Seems it was my bearing in the alternator causing the noise.

Any knowledge on these Reman Denso Alternators? I'm assuming they are much better than the house brands Auto parts stores sell.

 

[nthach]

I don't know about non-Denso apps, but in my case the Denso reman was basically a brand-new alternator for my car. All new components except for the case.

 

[ronrackley]

At that mileage, I'd just replace them both with factory original parts and plan to get that many more miles not having to think about them much.

Why a factory original alternator? I've had too many bad experiences with the low-cost "rebuilt" ones having electronic regulator modules inside that either are bad immediately or fail early because they weren't replaced when the alternators were "rebuilt" by cleaning them to make the cases look almost new and putting in new bearings and brushes. Maybe there is a quality rebuilder somewhere that replaces the electronics and fully tests alternators before they ship, but I just stopped fooling with them after having problems with two out of three that I replaced on my cars in the 1990s.