Unfortunately, a lot of the time the only parts available for a rebuilder to fix starters and alternators with are the same Chinese crapshoot you'd get in a reman.
Remy Alternator failure after 1 year (BBB Industries)
- Thread starter Elroy the Brave
- Start date
Not sure where VXB is from, Nachi/NTN/NSK/Koyo is good stuff regardless of COO, as long as you get a genuine one and not a fake. NTN’s 6000-series small bearings are primarily made in Taiwan.
SKF, an acronym I won’t say here and Timken(if it’s not a reboxed Chinese bearing) is fine too for small 6000-series bearings.
All the remans except Bosch/Denso use WAI Transpo Chinesium parts in many cases.
Bought the Ultima alternator from O'Reillys with the lifetime warranty and she's going on 6 yrs now.
For anecdotal, we had an Ultima in an '03 F150 4.6. The vehicle doesn't see regular use or tons of miles. I can't give exact mileage now (although I do have a maintenance log on my home desktop). It lasted maybe 4 years until the vehicle starting just melting belts.
Turns out the rear bearing of this alt was gone, I mean toasted to where once you understood how to grab the pulley and lever it off the front bearing there was a relatively huge clunk/clunk.
Now it seems to me the rear bearing of most alternators sees fairly light loads and I'd wager most OEM Motorcraft units never had a failed bearing in such a short time and low mileage as this occasional-use truck.
Thus, I concluded the rebuiler either didn't replace the bearing or used a super-Chicom bearing because if all bearings failed at this rate the shoulders of our roads would literally be over run with inoperative vehicles.
Turns out the rear bearing of this alt was gone, I mean toasted to where once you understood how to grab the pulley and lever it off the front bearing there was a relatively huge clunk/clunk.
Now it seems to me the rear bearing of most alternators sees fairly light loads and I'd wager most OEM Motorcraft units never had a failed bearing in such a short time and low mileage as this occasional-use truck.
Thus, I concluded the rebuiler either didn't replace the bearing or used a super-Chicom bearing because if all bearings failed at this rate the shoulders of our roads would literally be over run with inoperative vehicles.
Actually Denso doesn't even replace the bearings, and it says do on their webpage. We (generally speaking) don't recommend the Denso remans here (except those who drank the Toyota kool aid).
https://www.densoautoparts.com/alternators/
Bearings are validated to OE standards and loaded with premium OE-standard lubricants.
Which means that the bearings are not necessarily replaced.
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2020
- Messages
- 152
UPDATE:
Thanks for the insight and opinions everyone. Alternators are difficult, because often the failure happens suddenly and you don't have time to order a new one off of the internet, and wait for shipping. Also, I am not aware of any old timer Alternator rebuilders in my area.
Anyway, I installed the new OReilly Ultima unit yesterday, and my son was able to use his car this morning for School / Work. My guess is that this OReilly unit was made in the exact same China factory as the Remy / BBB unit. Anyway, fingers crossed (what else can you do).
Unfortunately, too many corporations have move manufacturing away from the US and Japan, and you are stuck buying garbage manufactured in China. I don't know what it is, but China seems to have a culture of producing junk, masked to look decent. Japan, in contrast, has usually strived to produce quality.
I think in the future if I need to order an alternator for a vehicle off the Internet, I'm going to try TYC, as those units are reportedly manufactured in Taiwan as opposed to China, and have better quality components.
Thanks for the insight and opinions everyone. Alternators are difficult, because often the failure happens suddenly and you don't have time to order a new one off of the internet, and wait for shipping. Also, I am not aware of any old timer Alternator rebuilders in my area.
Anyway, I installed the new OReilly Ultima unit yesterday, and my son was able to use his car this morning for School / Work. My guess is that this OReilly unit was made in the exact same China factory as the Remy / BBB unit. Anyway, fingers crossed (what else can you do).
Unfortunately, too many corporations have move manufacturing away from the US and Japan, and you are stuck buying garbage manufactured in China. I don't know what it is, but China seems to have a culture of producing junk, masked to look decent. Japan, in contrast, has usually strived to produce quality.
I think in the future if I need to order an alternator for a vehicle off the Internet, I'm going to try TYC, as those units are reportedly manufactured in Taiwan as opposed to China, and have better quality components.
Last edited:
I had a Pepboys reman Alternator fail on my only months after install, the brushes were completly worn, replaced them and now 4 years later still working fine.. but who knows about that refurb process..
I purchased a Bosch reman starter for my Infiniti but it sounded awful, replace it with a TYC and so far so good.
I purchased a Bosch reman starter for my Infiniti but it sounded awful, replace it with a TYC and so far so good.
Bummer about your Remy failure, but it's all too common. A couple weeks ago, I installed an AC Delco reman in an '04 CR-V (not the easiest job) only to have it fail less than a week later. Swapped it out for a Denso unit that was reman'd in the USA and I've had no issues since.
I purchased a new remy alternator Feb of last year from rock auto (part # 94121) so coming upon a year. There are not many days that I do not use my car. This thread concerns me that my alternator may take a dirt nap soon. If it does, I will post it here. Thanks for posting your experience Elroy.
yes some of TYC's are made in taiwan but more and more of their alternators are made in china.
I'm not one to defend China but it seems that if they want to they can produce quality parts. It just depends on who spec'd out the order for those parts! What's funny is some no-name Chinese parts have been reliable for me more than the corporate brand names! You can have junk from any country doesn't seem to be just one place.
I have a TYC alternator on the Civic, about 10 years old now, was made in taiwan. Be interesting to see how their made in china line is today.
I bought a new duralast alternator a few years back.
Made in malaysia.
Its supposed to make 50 amps at idle and max out at 120.
It falls short, but overall is good enough, and from 700 rpm it caN make 80+ amps when hot, but hot idle foot.on brake in drive, 525 rpm amd it makes only 32 amps aNd heats up disgustingly fast. Casing adjacent to stator Will go.from 165f to 220f in 90 second and will fall equally fast when moving at higher rpms..at highwY speeds 145f max, even making 116 amps into the depleted healthy additional batteries and every load i can add to maX it.out.
One should realize that alternaTors are only 55 to 60% efficient, before belt losses. 45% is turned to heat.
Underhood airflow is very poor.on a lot.of vehicles, amd the alternators are.ingesting radiator heated air, and producing tons of their own heat and its own fan is not spinning fast enough to shed it.
Poor quality remans simply have likely spent their life being abused with heavy loads and slow.speeds, while driver curses the traffic jam they are.sitting in.
HeaT cycling. 230f.to.120 f to.220 f, back and forth, back and forth.
That alone is going to destroy lots of.things with enough cycles.
A reman might get new brushes, and maYbe bearings , but a new stator, rotor, and slip rings are too hard for the average worker in a reman shop, to replace correctly.
Made in malaysia.
Its supposed to make 50 amps at idle and max out at 120.
It falls short, but overall is good enough, and from 700 rpm it caN make 80+ amps when hot, but hot idle foot.on brake in drive, 525 rpm amd it makes only 32 amps aNd heats up disgustingly fast. Casing adjacent to stator Will go.from 165f to 220f in 90 second and will fall equally fast when moving at higher rpms..at highwY speeds 145f max, even making 116 amps into the depleted healthy additional batteries and every load i can add to maX it.out.
One should realize that alternaTors are only 55 to 60% efficient, before belt losses. 45% is turned to heat.
Underhood airflow is very poor.on a lot.of vehicles, amd the alternators are.ingesting radiator heated air, and producing tons of their own heat and its own fan is not spinning fast enough to shed it.
Poor quality remans simply have likely spent their life being abused with heavy loads and slow.speeds, while driver curses the traffic jam they are.sitting in.
HeaT cycling. 230f.to.120 f to.220 f, back and forth, back and forth.
That alone is going to destroy lots of.things with enough cycles.
A reman might get new brushes, and maYbe bearings , but a new stator, rotor, and slip rings are too hard for the average worker in a reman shop, to replace correctly.
Similar threads
