Alternator failed

[Skippy722]

I promised I’d post the first the time one of my vehicles fails, and that day has come for the 2018 Grand Caravan.

We all pile into the van that was running happily to go to church, get halfway down our road and the battery light illuminates. Have my wife turn around, all pile into the truck and get to church…

After church I started digging in. Because it is a Dodge I immediately blamed the battery, yank it, yank the battery from my truck and put it into the van, no more battery light or check engine light! Victory! (Or so I thought).

Go to advance, of course the battery is out of warranty by a month but whatever. They test it and it comes back as “recharge and retest”, but the CCA’s were 580 supposed to be 800@0F, but it was at 12.4V. Screw it, I’ll replace the battery anyway. They did upgrade me to a “platinum” for the price of the “gold” which is about a $40 difference, I’ll take a win. Also picked up a multimeter because I have toddlers and they broke my other one.

Throw new battery in, fires right up no lights! Get my shiny new multimeter annnnnddddd…. Alternator is dead. PCM is commanding 100% duty cycle, target voltage of 14’ish volts, but it’s sitting at 11.2’ish while running with a full electrical load (lights, front and rear HVAC, radio on).

New alternator will be here Tuesday. Ordered a reman BBB Industries one from rock auto, parts store wanted $300+ for a reman.

 

[LazyDog]

2018 it seems to early but you never know.

 

[Skippy722]

2018 it seems to early but you never know.

Yeah, but it did spend the first year/40k miles as a rental car and it’s now sitting at 110,863.

 

[Passport1]

Always fun to read another BITOG heuristic approach to problem solving. ¡Bravo señor!

 

[bullwinkle]

Just think-if you had checked the charging voltage BEFORE you bought the new battery (with a recharge message on the old one); you could have saved buying a new one!

 

[tiger862]

My 18 is still on original battery. Just under 35k.

 

[Skippy722]

Just think-if you had checked the charging voltage BEFORE you bought the new battery (with a recharge message on the old one); you could have saved buying a new one!

It’s been one of those weeks… last week was the brake fiasco, then I got some stomach bug Wednesday night/Thursday morning and was out of commission till Saturday, and now this. Wife and kids primarily use it so the $250 for a new battery and a multi meter for some peace of mind knowing that won’t be an issue for her is worth it.

My 18 is still on original battery. Just under 35k.

I take the blame for that one failing, I left my old radar detector plugged in that didn’t have an auto off feature for a few days. It had enough juice to start the car normally, drive <10 miles, shut it off, and then totally drop a cell or 2 in the battery.

 

[14Accent]

Man Mopar is proud of those OE units. Sheesh. RA had an OEM AC Delco for my Regal on hand for $199, brand new. Hopefully that BB serves you well, at least it's not a terrible job on the 3.6's

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Wow, that's terrible. I thought they pretty much had alternators figured out by now. Most of my post 2000 vehicles have them lasting for 200k miles +

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Wow, that's terrible. I thought they pretty much had alternators figured out by now. Most of my post 2000 vehicles have them lasting for 200k miles +

We just replaced one last week and I honestly can not recall when the last time? Likely in the 70s..........!?

 

[14Accent]

Wow, that's terrible. I thought they pretty much had alternators figured out by now. Most of my post 2000 vehicles have them lasting for 200k miles +

Not by a LONG shot. Newer vehicles have so much electrical load, combined with clutched alternator pulleys and duty cycle controlled output they're just ticking time bombs.

On the 3.6 Chrysler's it's almost always the regulator that gives up the ghost.

 

[Kira]

The "battery light" came on in my 1972 Toyota Corolla DeLuxe while driving up 9th Ave. in NYC.
I drove to a 'father & son' alternator shop which opened early. 10 minutes to swap in a reman.
I wasn't even late for work; 8AM.
Shops like that vanished as the neighborhood went residential.

 

[tiger862]

Which brand of alternator are you getting?

 

[Skippy722]

Which brand of alternator are you getting?

BBB Industries re-man.

 

[Pew]

That's not bad, 70k miles after an unknown 40k of rental miles before anything in our attached to the motor failed. Did you just pay it off? Seems like everything wants to start breaking right as it's paid off.

 

[Skippy722]

That's not bad, 70k miles after an unknown 40k of rental miles before anything in our attached to the motor failed. Did you just pay it off? Seems like everything wants to start breaking right as it's paid off.

Almost, got about 3k left on it. Was going to have it paid off by July or August, then this happened lol

 

[tiger862]

Almost, got about 3k left on it. Was going to have it paid off by July or August, then this happened lol

Mine will be paid off in September or October.

 

[Skippy722]

My buddy came out to give me a hand (and by a hand I mean he did 99.9% of the work) and he got it changed in about an hour. New alternator fit right in as expected and is charging!

Old alternator pulley felt like it was spinning on its shaft if that makes sense? Or like a clutch was slipping? The new one didn’t feel like that.

 

[dogememe]

Assuming it has a decoupler pulley/clutch, can you take it apart and see if that failed?

 

[Skippy722]

Assuming it has a decoupler pulley/clutch, can you take it apart and see if that failed?

It definitely does… I will do some poking and prodding tomorrow! From what I can find online, neither style of decoupling pulleys should be able to rotate like what mine is doing.