dromond Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 (edited) 3 months ago I accidentally drained the battery on my 97 Legacy wagon. I had the charging system tested and everything checked out except for an alternator that barely met the minimum voltage and old battery. I went down to the local Carquest, bought a new battery and a remanufactured alternator. Installation was pretty easy. The next day I notice some funky behavior and when I tested the voltage I see that the alternator isn't charging properly: I had gotten an bad one. I bring it back to the Carquest and swap it out for a "new" remanufactured one. I install and test to find that it outputs the proper voltage. Yay! I drive ~2000 happy miles. Then, this morning I notice a slight whining sound from under the hood. I'm on my way to work so I don't take the time to test the alternator or anything, which was a mistake. When I park at work I go to restart the car and the dash lights are on but the starter will not turn. Oops.... Two hours later the car starts up normally. (In retrospect, I think that the battery had "recovered" from the morning's drain.) I start the drive home and 5 minutes in the speedo, radio, lights and other electrical stuff start going haywire which I immediately recognize as my alternator dieing, so I get off the freeway and get towed home The question is, are all Carquest/Autozone type remanufactured alternators junk? I would suspect something else in the system, except that I had it tested and there was no drain while the car was off or anything like that. The wiring appears to be in good shape. It's just weird to have one new alternator fail immediately after installation and than another fail after 2,000 miles. Can anyone recommend a place in my area (I'm in north Seattle) that might stock OEM remanufactured alternators for a 97 Legacy? I've read that some of the off brand ones can be real junk (as I think I am discovering) and that only the Subaru remanufactured ones are worthwhile. You'd think I would have learned this lesson after experiencing an aftermarket muffler that rusted out in 2 years. Edited January 24, 2012 by dromond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Funny, I get all my alternators at Pick N Pull. I have a '97 Impreza (square plug) and I usually pick them up at the wrecking yard. When I buy one I install it on my Impreza and put the used one (that I know still works fine) on the shelf for when I need one in an emergency. After 20-25 days I know the junkyard alternator works fine and I keep it; if not, I return it for another or credit. Not bad; a working alternator for around $20 plus a $10 core charge. Last one I had on the car failed after two years. There was a very good rebuilder in Ballard that I used until he moved to California. It cost around $90 for him to rebuild one of my bad ones. I liked having him since I got a quality rebuild every time. Now I use junkyard ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dromond Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 Funny, I get all my alternators at Pick N Pull. I have a '97 Impreza (square plug) and I usually pick them up at the wrecking yard. When I buy one I install it on my Impreza and put the used one (that I know still works fine) on the shelf for when I need one in an emergency. After 20-25 days I know the junkyard alternator works fine and I keep it; if not, I return it for another or credit. Not bad; a working alternator for around $20 plus a $10 core charge. Last one I had on the car failed after two years. There was a very good rebuilder in Ballard that I used until he moved to California. It cost around $90 for him to rebuild one of my bad ones. I liked having him since I got a quality rebuild every time. Now I use junkyard ones. You know that's not a bad system. I need to become familiar with the pick n' pull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattocs Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I don't mean to hijack this thread, but is there a tutorial on the USRM on rebuilding alternators? I've got a failing one sitting in the hatch of my wagon. I don't want to be a hoarder of broken car parts, but I feel I could possibly fix it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I've got only one alt left and it's a Subaru reman and I'm ENE of Pittsburgh about 35 miles. I'll be out all day today though. PM me if interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Sorry to read about your experience with 2 bad alts. I too, have read a lot of negative press about part stores selling poorly rebuilt alt rebuilds. So, it doesn't come as a big surprise that you had 2 in a row go bad. On the personal + side, I have bought rebuilt alts and starters from Autozone over the years, and experienced no problems. If it were me, I would try for a third alt from Carquest, if still under warranty, and see if the third time is the charm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I have some (like 5) brand new, freshly rebuild "Worldwide" reman alt's that came from parts stores. Short version is I bough thte cars aftr the "new" alt didn't fix the problem. Alt's were probably bad out of the box. They usually paint hte metal stripe Green (or atleast they used to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Return that POS and get a subaru reman unit. Yours is a 1997 so it might be covered under the recall for the alts. Even if it's not covered you can get the subaru reman alt for about $75. I would go this route, and then you will never have to worry about your alt failing again. Well at least for a long long time... Here's some more info. My post is about swapping alt's between generations, but I used a 1997 reman alt. All the info and part numbers are in the first post. Since you are "local" to me, all of this info is relevant to you. I just did this swap about a week or 2 ago, so the prices should not have really gone up any. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=129024 HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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