Alternator life expectancy ??

Holy shite ! That's amazing. Wonder how this happens - they go anywhere from 100K plus to 440k -

 

You guys that had them go - did you have to get towed ? If you ordered it on line like TheDevilYouLove from Rock Auto or from other vendors - what did you do in the mean time to get to work or where ever you had to go ?

 

I had mine towed to a shop. Once that battery light comes on your alternator isn’t charging your battery anymore.

 

No, if you realize what is happening you can get it home on battery. If your battery is in good state of charge you can drive quite a few miles like that before she flames out. I have a ScanGauge 2 with voltage displayed full time and I noticed some crazy fluctuations as the alternator was dying... then just went down to battery voltage and stayed there at which time the idiot light came on. But easily made the 30 miles home. Daytime so not running headlights.

 

Pushing 300k (with much offroad and water crossings) and my original is still going *replaced the diode pack because it was whining. Talking to some people in an offroad trip thread and they are scared of water... Said last trip at least 2 people lost their alternators and to bring spares... lol must not know that the brushes can get clogged up and are super easy to clean out.

 

Another guy has a PSA thread saying you won't get even 10mins on battery alone... lol

 

Maybe he was running his winch? LOL.

I did have one flame out on me once upon a time. I had a 1987 IROC Camaro and the alternator died on my way to visit friends. Similar to the Tacoma in that it had EFI , computers, etc. I drove it the 20 remaining miles on battery to get there and that night we put it on a charger... but unfortunately all they had was a 1 amp motorcycle charger. I needed to head home the next morning so it only put in about 12 amp hours. I had a 35 mile drive... and I got about 3 miles from home where I got stuck traffic... and where it flamed out. Pushed it off the road, got a ride home to collect another battery, popped it in and made it back. What a PITA that was.

 

I think I'll hook my ScanGauge back up - good ideal. Thanks.

 

Why'd you unhook it? Even if the truck is running 100% it's a good thing to have to glance at every now and then.

 

Great story ! Thanks.

 

Apparently you'll get more according to the shape your battery is in.

 

I like my batteries in kind of a Rectangular prism/cuboid shape

 

Ahhh, the old lifetime warranty.
You’ll spend a lifetime warranting it.

Been there, done that too.

 

When all that was probably wrong with the original was dirty brushes or toasted diodes.
Link in sig

 

Same here on the 151K.

 

When mine "went" it wasnt immediate failure, like stated it was one of the of the rectifier on the back of the alternator, it was producing power but not at the full amperage, you could hear it. So I drove the truck the next day or two while I figured out what it was then replace it when I could.

 

Did you take photos when you replaced your diodes? What all is involved?

 

Not apparently. Really. Like I said above you can go pretty far depending on your battery's state of charge. These batteries are ~ 75 amp hour capacity, and you are probably only pulling between 5 and 10 amps assuming the lights, A/C, seat heaters and monster stereo are all turned off. So if your battery is even half full you could draw 5 amps for 7 hours... but you couldn't drive that long because the EFI and ECU would probably cut off due to low voltage as the battery drains down. I am not sure exactly what voltage that is TBH. Nor do I want to find out. I believe in my Camaro example it was around 11V but that was a long time ago so my memory isn't perfect.

 

Made a thread, Link in my signature

 

One of the major factors that can affect alternator life I haven't seen mentioned here yet is keeping a good battery in the truck, a weak or failing battery puts more stress on the alternator (and starter too).

On average just from what I work on at the shop Toyota's alternators seem to be well above average in life expectancy, it may be partially due to them tending to run a slightly lower charging voltage (~13.2-13.8 vs many vehicles wanting to be 14.3-14.8).