Alternator went out buy oem or better?

Thanks man yup my friend said the same thing thats why I knew it was the alternator..got it out of the truck and gonna get it checked just to make sure and get it rebuilt

 

I would go with OEM Alternator for trucks with tow package. Thats Denso 130 AMP

 

lifetime warantees from autozone, pep boys etc, just means that they will always replace their junk with another junk alternator. you will replace them every 6 months- 12 months because they are crap. dash&headlights dim when you idle, engine runs bad. you get what you pay for. you are giving away a denso double-wound high quality 130 amp alternator as acore deposit and getting their junk single-wound cant put out enough amperage POS!! have your denso re-built by an electric-auto shop, or buy a new or re-built one from toyota only. toyota alternator and starter and a/c compressor are all very high quality denso made products, always have them re-built IF they fail.When it comes to anything under the hood you shouldnt stray from TOYOTA OEM parts, especially oil filter, plugs, belts,hoses and any emiision or ELECTRONIC components. live and learn, i know i had to. good luck

 

Wow, seeing bad news about the Optima. I replaced my battey with the optima and had nothing but good luck, my electronics would easily make my headlights almost shut off from the current draw with my stock battery. Not with the Optima. My yellow top was an amazing upgrade from my stock one, thought I would have fried my alternator by now but no. Note the battery cable is almost the same size as the positive battery terminal, this runs my stereo.

 

So in searching, I have a similar but different problem. I had a red top for just under 3 years, and started having it be dead in the morning if I did not drive every day. So, I went Auto zone, PepBoys etc and had them run the battery diagnostic, and they kept saying that it was good. Problem continued for the past month, and went back to Autozone to have them charge it on the "special" Optima charger.

Upon re-installing, it did not start on the first two tries, and by then the battery was drained. Both the AZ guy and I concluded that the battery, or at least some of the cells, were fried, but due to the type of battery Optimas are, it still diagnosed as good.

Went back to Pep Boys and they gave me a new one no questions, but I sent with Yellow instead due to it being a deep cycle, hoping that if the problems continued it would not fry it from repeated draining.

So, installed the new yellow, and I have not had it die yet, but it still will rough start, even after letting it sit for only a few hours. I tried a parasitic drain test on both of my accessory leads coming off of the + (lights/compressor and one for my stereo/amp) with nothing out of the ordinary. One of the guys at AZ suggested maybe a bad diode in the alternator.

Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions before I pull the alternator? No corrosion on the terminals, but I will give them a brush and tighten the ground just to be sure so I can rule that out.

 

i am amazed how many of you dont have a simple multi-meter. it really is (and should be) the first step.

 

I do and did, it helped me none.

 

If you yank the battery cable off a running truck and reconnect it your lucky it did not do more then light the light that is one of the best ways to really f$%^ some thing up.

 

Is there a battery light on the dash that is on? My moms 07 4runner had that light come on and about a day later it died on me while I was driving. It was the alternator. There was never a CEL light on though. If your battery light isnt on and the CEL is, im thinking possible engine problem. Idk though.

Edit: Damm the person that revived the thread. Gets me every time.

 

Hehe.

No lights on at all. I did some more digging this evening and check the voltage, 12.84, I will heck in the AM and see where I am at. I did find that the set screws for a few wires were a bit loose, I really hope that does it.

 

best batt built

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/applications/auto.htm

 

Yup, Odyssey will be my next for sure. I may get an odyssey and use the yellow for a dual system.

 

Dropped to 12.36 overnight, any thoughts?

 

Hmmm, if my voltages are OK, what are other things that could be causing a rough start? I know my plugs are in need of replacing, I am at 37K on my current ones, could that be it?

 

I had a yellow top in one of my previous cars that just died somehow. I swore up and down it couldn't be the battery and thought i had done something because i had just taken out my remote start/alarm and figured i messed something up. I double checked all my wires and everything looked good. I was able to push start it so went through a whole day trying to figure out what was going on because i figured no way it would be the yellow top, then eventually i gave up tried jump starting it an found out the culprit was that battery.

Pull a battery out of friends car and put in the tacoma and see if it starts up and drive it around to see if the battery drains. Then you know for sure its your battery. From experience a bad alternator feels like the vehicle is stalling or a major vac leak.

 

The Yellow is brand new, warrantied from a faulty Red, see above. So, I do not think it is battery (the battery itself, not ruling out things draining it).

 

Went through the other comments and it does seem like it is the alternator.

The yellow top i had at that time was defective and wouldn't take a charge that's why i assumed it was battery before reading through all the post.

Went through a bad alternator once that kept draining my battery (non optima), but wasn't giving me any signs that it was the alternator until i was on my second battery, then i started getting the stalling effect at idle and would have to rev the engine to keep it going.

 

was it the diode? Do you think pulling the alt wire that goes to the battery and rechecking the voltages night/morning would show this?

 

At 77 degrees F, a fully charged Optima will measure 12.8 VDC with a accurate digital voltmeter after the surface charge has dissipated. Never disconnect a battery while the engine is running, because the alternator could go to "full field" and the over-voltage can fry electrical or electronic components.

For more information on testing batteries, please see Section 4 in the Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org.