I had a Lincoln got a lifetime motorcraft starter from then Kragen . Got about 5 years out of it. Went to now Oriellys to warranty it, no problem except they no longer carry motorcraft. Got it warranteed with a "remaned in china" unit- best they had. Do you think they ship parts to China to do the remans- nope
This is why we don't buy Alternators at O'Reillys...
- Thread starter Oro_O
- Start date
No love for the Belkin brand?
If I ever can't find OE or OEM.. Belkin stuff (NAPA electrical) always comes to mind. It costs more but I always thought it to be good stuff. Quality.
Something happened?
A car like that.. $50 from a scrapyard, possibly $60 maybe even $75 depending on your luck of the draw and area. No guarantee on electrical parts. Take it home, pop it in, and you probably got an OE unit.
Internet would be EBay for that, electrical stuff has the possibility to screw up how the car runs. Particularly with cheap parts or not replacing completely at once, example: coils.
So to me it sounds like their rebuild process consists of stripping it down, cleaning it, painting everything so it looks new, and replacing pretty much nothing. Awesome.
I know people used to be able to trust Remy remanufactured alternators and starters, but I am not sure how true that is now since BBB, Industries acquired Remy in January 2019.
Does anyone know what the quality of the BBB products are both new and remanufactured?
Does anyone know what the quality of the BBB products are both new and remanufactured?
AFAIK the new Remy alt/starters are and have been for many years made in China, not bad quality. They are possibly made by a Chinese domestic OE manufacturer. Anything reman BBB has to do with seems to suck as bad as Cardone if that is even possible.
I wouldn't be surprised if the cheap money grabbers don't reuse the brushes if they are more than x long. They probably do use new but I wouldnt bet on the quality of them.
I saw a new AC Delco alt on Summit Racing’s website. Are those any good? It was 136 dollars plus shipping.
I think this is key. I remember going through 3 re-man'd starters in my dad's 1990 Chevy W/T 4.3L 2wd pickup years ago over the course of a few months until I finally got a good one. Replacement was pretty easy on this truck fortunately.
How worn out were the parts that you replaced?
Somebody please tell me how you "repack" a sealed bearing with OEM spec grease.
It's Ultima, not Optima. Lolol.
Personally I've had several of the Ultima reman alternators fail in my own vehicles. So I warranty returned them and paid the difference to go with the 100% new Ultima Select alternators.
That said you can't blame O'Reilly. According to last week's "training" video (basically marketing IMO) our alternators are made by the same company that makes over 70% of reman alternators for both the OEM and the aftermarket. In fact I could tell you exactly the name of the company that makes them. But that's pointless.
Whether you buy at O'Reilly, AutoZone, Advance, Napa, it's all the same crap in different color boxes. I'd say shop on price, warranty, and convenience.
To the person complaining about their O'Reilly alternator only having a 1 year warranty, that's only if you buy the absolute cheapest "BesTest" brand available for a limited selection of older domestics. If you had paid the extra $20 or so to get the lifetime warranty Ultima you'd have free replacements for life. That is not the company's fault.
Personally I've had several of the Ultima reman alternators fail in my own vehicles. So I warranty returned them and paid the difference to go with the 100% new Ultima Select alternators.
That said you can't blame O'Reilly. According to last week's "training" video (basically marketing IMO) our alternators are made by the same company that makes over 70% of reman alternators for both the OEM and the aftermarket. In fact I could tell you exactly the name of the company that makes them. But that's pointless.
Whether you buy at O'Reilly, AutoZone, Advance, Napa, it's all the same crap in different color boxes. I'd say shop on price, warranty, and convenience.
To the person complaining about their O'Reilly alternator only having a 1 year warranty, that's only if you buy the absolute cheapest "BesTest" brand available for a limited selection of older domestics. If you had paid the extra $20 or so to get the lifetime warranty Ultima you'd have free replacements for life. That is not the company's fault.
Are they widely available for all makes and models ? I know on the manufacturing side they're an available part but does that always mean they can be purchased at retail ? Rockauto doesn't sell on for a '12 Accord or an '05 Odyssey, for example. They do sell them for '99 Accords though .... for $140-149.
I have never had to replace a Remy unit again, but I have not bought one of their alternators in almost 5 years. But on my old 3.3L Grand Am I went through 3 or 4 alternators one summer, it was the vision-OE brand which is BBB. Oddly enough my 95 Pathfinder has a BBB one on it (was installed when I bought the truck) and it has been fine for the entire time I've owned it.
I did go through 2 Napa power supreme starters as well on my old Nissan truck.
These days I try and stay with OEM if the price is not insane. Which it always is so then you're back to shopping the aftermarket, lol.
I did go through 2 Napa power supreme starters as well on my old Nissan truck.
These days I try and stay with OEM if the price is not insane. Which it always is so then you're back to shopping the aftermarket, lol.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2024
I don’t buy an alternator from any auto parts stores. I bought one for my friends car put it on it lasted 2 days got another and same thing returned got money back and ordered a good one off RockAuto. Same with the starters from those places I always buy new anyway and never remanufactured.
I bought a NipponDenso clone alternator from Autozone, 'Duralast gold', early this year. It was not much more money than rebuilt. Made in Malaysia. Delivered to doorstep in less than 24 hours of placing order.
I did not have the time or place or inclination to open up and inspect the failed 'lifetime warranty' alternator of a different design.
I work my externally regulated alternators hard, charging well depleted batteries with voltage I choose manually and watch the amperage flowing into depleted battery closely.
It was supposed to be 50 amps idle and 120 amps max.
It cannot meet that 120 amp rating, and when hot, it can make about 32 amps max, but a few hundred more rpm and it shoots up into the 80+ amp range. The failed alternator was indeed good for 50 at hot idle and 120 Max.
The alternator it replaced was a lifetime warranty unit bought from Kragen in 2004ish. I went through no less than 4 of those in 16 years, the most recent exchange in 2015. This most recent exchange, seemed to perform better at hot idle than previous ones.
O'reilly's, when I called them to get another one, claimed to have no record of me ever having bought an Alternator from them. I think after 5 or 6 free replacements, I got erased.
Since I realized it was not going to be warrantied, I opened it up to inspect a few weeks after installing the ND clone.
It failed, as the Brushes were not properly aligned with the slip rings, the lower brush just barely touching the top ring in in addition to the bottom one. When the brush bottomed out on that space between slip rings, it stopped charging.
Pics in this thread:
I realigned the brush holder, rehoned the VERY out of round slip rings, removed the thermal transfer blocking paint on underside of twin rectifier plates, Made fatter copper parallel AC straps, and returned it to service, as it performs better at hot idle than the ND clone, and seems a smidge or 3 better than before with better rectifier heatsinking to casing and fatter AC straps.
The New made in Malaysia Duralast NipponDenso clone is in its original box, on a shelf. They sell both a 50/120 version and a 40/90. If it was not able to max out @ 108 amps, I would say they were selling the 40/90 as a 50/120, due to poor hot idle speed output.
I suspect the stator windings are a bit short of copper compared to An Authentic Nippon Denso. 108 amps was the max at about 2400 engine rpm and plenty of load.
It works, I was just hoping for the opposite of what happened. Its output is quite good from ~800 to 1300 engine rpm, but my other alternator is able to produce more amperage outside that rpm range.
I thought the dual internal fans would help its hot idle speed amperage output compared to the previous designs one pully mounted external fan, but that failed to materialize, and a smaller dual V belt pulley would have to be machined, so the older reman is back in place.
I removed the ND clone's back cover, voiding warranty, to see if there was anything easily improved like on the other alternator, regarding reducing resistance and improve thermal transfer from diodes, but saw nothing that could easily be accomplished, and put it back together.
So the New alternators, that are not much more expensive than Reman, are, in my limited experience, built to a lesser standard. Copper is expensive and there is supposed to be a lot of copper in the stator.
Acceptable performance, if I were not requiring maximum output often. I bet 99% of people would never notice its lack of performance, unless they were idling excessively with All dc loads on , and a well depleted healthy battery , and notice battery voltage dropping and dropping.
I bet this can occur with many vehicles with OEM alternators. Hot Idle speed output, with a heat soaked alternator, is likely unimpressive, and perhaps inadequate if ALL the possible DC loads are turned on while idling. But ti would likely take 10 hours of idling to fully depleted the battery, so really of little consequence.
I did not have the time or place or inclination to open up and inspect the failed 'lifetime warranty' alternator of a different design.
I work my externally regulated alternators hard, charging well depleted batteries with voltage I choose manually and watch the amperage flowing into depleted battery closely.
It was supposed to be 50 amps idle and 120 amps max.
It cannot meet that 120 amp rating, and when hot, it can make about 32 amps max, but a few hundred more rpm and it shoots up into the 80+ amp range. The failed alternator was indeed good for 50 at hot idle and 120 Max.
The alternator it replaced was a lifetime warranty unit bought from Kragen in 2004ish. I went through no less than 4 of those in 16 years, the most recent exchange in 2015. This most recent exchange, seemed to perform better at hot idle than previous ones.
O'reilly's, when I called them to get another one, claimed to have no record of me ever having bought an Alternator from them. I think after 5 or 6 free replacements, I got erased.
Since I realized it was not going to be warrantied, I opened it up to inspect a few weeks after installing the ND clone.
It failed, as the Brushes were not properly aligned with the slip rings, the lower brush just barely touching the top ring in in addition to the bottom one. When the brush bottomed out on that space between slip rings, it stopped charging.
Pics in this thread:
Remanufactured alternator brush alignment
Looks like they missed, badly. Surprisingly it worked fine for 4.5 years like this~25k miles, and often, it was told by my adjustable voltage regulator, to make everything possible towards its 120 amp rating, feeding a large depleted low resistance AGM battery, over a thick copper circuit.
www.bobistheoilguy.com
I realigned the brush holder, rehoned the VERY out of round slip rings, removed the thermal transfer blocking paint on underside of twin rectifier plates, Made fatter copper parallel AC straps, and returned it to service, as it performs better at hot idle than the ND clone, and seems a smidge or 3 better than before with better rectifier heatsinking to casing and fatter AC straps.
The New made in Malaysia Duralast NipponDenso clone is in its original box, on a shelf. They sell both a 50/120 version and a 40/90. If it was not able to max out @ 108 amps, I would say they were selling the 40/90 as a 50/120, due to poor hot idle speed output.
I suspect the stator windings are a bit short of copper compared to An Authentic Nippon Denso. 108 amps was the max at about 2400 engine rpm and plenty of load.
It works, I was just hoping for the opposite of what happened. Its output is quite good from ~800 to 1300 engine rpm, but my other alternator is able to produce more amperage outside that rpm range.
I thought the dual internal fans would help its hot idle speed amperage output compared to the previous designs one pully mounted external fan, but that failed to materialize, and a smaller dual V belt pulley would have to be machined, so the older reman is back in place.
I removed the ND clone's back cover, voiding warranty, to see if there was anything easily improved like on the other alternator, regarding reducing resistance and improve thermal transfer from diodes, but saw nothing that could easily be accomplished, and put it back together.
So the New alternators, that are not much more expensive than Reman, are, in my limited experience, built to a lesser standard. Copper is expensive and there is supposed to be a lot of copper in the stator.
Acceptable performance, if I were not requiring maximum output often. I bet 99% of people would never notice its lack of performance, unless they were idling excessively with All dc loads on , and a well depleted healthy battery , and notice battery voltage dropping and dropping.
I bet this can occur with many vehicles with OEM alternators. Hot Idle speed output, with a heat soaked alternator, is likely unimpressive, and perhaps inadequate if ALL the possible DC loads are turned on while idling. But ti would likely take 10 hours of idling to fully depleted the battery, so really of little consequence.
I just replaced the alternator on an '02 Ford Escort a couple months ago. I checked the price of rebuilt units at AZ and AAP both were going to be about $125. out the door with a core. Since I had another car I could use until a new one got here I went to Rock Auto and got a rebuilt Magneti-Marelli on a closeout deal that they claim has new bearings, regulator, brushes, and slip rings for about $75 delivered to my door. and no core required. Can't say how long it will last but so far so good. In about 45 years of driving I think this is only the 3rd alternator I've replaced. The others were OE from a junk yard. whey you could buy used for about $25.
Ask me how grateful I am for the 3rd generation starter/alternator rebuild shop 5 miles away.
I've shown up on my bicycle with my alternator in a bag; much to their entertainment.
I've shown up on my bicycle with my alternator in a bag; much to their entertainment.
Here's a big thumbs down 
for Cardone remanufactured products.
for Cardone remanufactured products.
