?Q? Is alternator part of drivetrain warranty?

Question: is the alternator part of the drivetrain or basic warranty. think mine just went out at 40k miles.

 

how do you know it went out?

 

i dont yet. its not charging the battery.
but the battery holds a charge.. soooo its probably the alternator,, right? it does taht whole click click click click when u start,, after it ALMOST turns over. then continues to click.. so i just jump it.

 

yeah well my truck doesnt even turn over till i jump it then it starts clicking and then eventually gets started and runs but dies after a while, it happend yesterday to me in the dez.

 

on my build someone asked why i got towed home and i described the whole truck dying scene, is this similar to you cuz i think its my alternator as well:
well we stopped to take pics at the top of that hill and i shut the truck off and when i went to turn it back on it didnt even turnover at all, so we took off the battery plugs to let it reset and still nothing so we jumped it and it slowly started to crank and eventually it started after a few minutes and then we continued heading back towards the fwy to leave and the dash lights all came on and went crazy and my speedo went from 0 to 120 lol and then a few seconds later everything shut off and it just died so we jumped it again and i knew something was wrong so i drove in the first lane at 60 mph and we got halfway there when that crazy dash thing happend again so i quickly turned into the shoulder and waited for it to die but it didnt after 5 minutes of idling and revving so we took off and 30 seconds later everything just shut off and it died so i had to pull back to the side of the road and we just called AAA to get towed to my buddys shop to be safe. i think its the alternator cuz it seems like the battery is holding the amount of power that was given through jumping it cuz the first time once it was started we unplugged the cables and set off for about 10 minutes but the second time we jumped it we let them sit for about 10 minutes and it drove for an hour or so on the fwy...any suggestions? my buddy is going to take a look at it tomorrow when he works but i dont know whats wrong

 

i dont know. hopefully someone can tell us

 

Yeaah

 

Alternator is not part of the drivetrain.....thus not in warranty.

 

If you have a multimeter you can see if the alternator is charging the battery. Set it at 12v dc and touch the leads to the battery while the truck is running....you should see around 14v if the alt is charging.

 

take it to autozone or napa, they usually test alternators for free, maybe $5... if you have a multimeter, check the batteries DC voltage while it is running, if the alternator is charging it should show 13-14 Volts. If less than it probly is the alternator.

edit: ^^^he beat me....

 

Great minds thinking alike huh

 

^^they sure do...

 

A cheap easy way to check the alternator is to start the truck and disconnect the battery. If the truck stays running the alternator is fine, if it dies the alternator not charging.

 

yah i took the negative off this morning and it ran.. but im thinking thats just cause its a TOYOTA BABY.. jk no its the battery.. any suggestions. dont want to spend $$$ but i need a good battery.

 

You say the battery is holding a charge... Has it been load tested, or just checked with a meter after being on the charger?

 

NOT a great idea any more. The battery serves to dampen voltage fluctuations in the system...pulling the negative cable while running can cause the voltage to swing much wider than normal, potentially damaging electronics.

 

go with the load test on the battery. Just because it may show 12 volts doesn't mean it is good. You also need to check the cold cranking amps (CCA) on the battery. As far as a new battery, Optima's are awesome, expensive...but the chances of you having to replace it any time soon is very slim. A battery isn't something to be cheap with.