96 Disco 3rd Alternator going.
 

Hi Folks,
I have replaced my alt twice and now it's going again. Making high pitch whine after shifting. I just noticed the noise today.
Same as the last one. I purchased the 1st replacement in 2008, 2nd in 2009 and now another coming in 2010.I suspect that the belt tension in my rover is a bit too much for the alt bearing.
I do have a lifetime warranty from NAPA. I will take this in for a replacement. They are worth about $350.00 up here in Canada. After tax close to 400.
I want a good reliable alternator and am willing to buy another and keep the replacement from NAPA as a backup. NAPA has another cheaper alt but if there is a good aftermarket Alt I want to consider it rather than having this unreliable one let me down somewhere inconvenient.
I would sure appreciate recommendations!!

Thanks Ed

If you have a liftime warranty change it, if you have to do it once a year big deal, it takes a half hour.

That's what I did last two times. Big thing is wife cannot walk so if we breakdown somewhere we might be in a spot of trouble. I'll keep the replacement as a spare but would like a better more reliable one.

If you don't mind spending the money, the "Mean Green" alternators are bullet proof. they are built for race cars, ambulances, police cars, and the like. They are overbuilt, so it's not going to fail. http://www.mean-green.com/index.html

Problem cause vs outcome
 

I think the issue is why are the alts failing?
I have a 97 Disco with 160K miles original alternator.
I agree with you that the fact that they are under warranty only solves part of the problem. We want a reliable car.
Something changed in the car in 2008 and you should find out what. Are all the pulleys aligned? Did you get a new tensioner that is over stressing the system? Is the belt a bit too short? Are the new alternators same "diameter" as the original one? Same pulley size? a bigger one will need a longer belt.:confused:
Something has changed and I don't think is the quality of the aftermarket alternator bearings.

You are not the first person on here to have trouble with those alternators. From what I have read here and on other forums they last a year at best. I would get a used one from one of the online salvage places and get it rebuilt if it fails. Keep the replacement after you trade this one in for a spare and maybe even keep it in the back of the rover if getting stranded is a big issue.

Thanks for the reply.

The first one was in the summer of 2008 and I had not had anything done on the LR that year. There was a broken arm on the alt that may have led to the failure of that unit. By the looks of it, a previous owner had overtightened the lower bolt. That alt was replaced with the first NAPA which started making noise 8 or 9 mo's after install. That Napa went 8-9 mo's later and when I replaced it I noticed the fan unit was a bit loose so had that fixed as well and a new belt. Now 8 Mo's later that one is getting noisy. All of these units were identical, same model and all made in China. The belt is not any tighter than my other vehicles belt, a GM.

Thanks Suede, I'll check out mean green. I'll also check out the rebuild option.