They will give me my money back no problem.
But the problem is that they would have to order it, that takes a week min for it to come in.
In the mean time I need my truck to get back and forth to work.
So if I return it and they order me a new one I cant drive my truck.
If I order the new one and leave the bad one in I can drive my truck but then I am running off just the battery, the only problem with that is it is dark when I go to work and dark when I come home.
And it's 20*F and snowing.
No alt means I cant use the wipers, heater, rear defroster...nothing that draws power from the battery because I need all the juice I can get to make sure she will start after sitting in the cold for 12 hours and have enough power for the head lights and to run the engine, fuel pump, brake lights etc.
I get what you are saying and I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I need my truck running today not next week.

 

Sounds like you are going to play the rebuilt swap game and in the mean time order the new OEM alternator or buy a used OEM and get it rebuilt by a known shop. Sucks but what else can your do if you need your truck?

 

I've had bad luck with advanced auto rebuilds with my other car. I've gone through 3 of them in the past couple of years myself. Luckilly they are great about replacing them under warranty, but they said the last one is it, they'll refund me if it fails again but not replace it. I don't think they can handle heat well since mine sits about 3" from the exhaust pipe and turbo on my car and Disco's seem to run pretty hot as well. I'll have to get an OEM if it fails one more time, but I made some heat shields and it's holding up well.

 

Yes that is what I am going to have to do.
I have a couple of leads on some used ones.
If it was summer time I would just order a brand new one and then run off the battery for the week, but it's winter and that is hard enough on a battery let alone running off of it like this all the time.
I charge it every night but man, what a PIA.
The guy at Advance tried to tell me that my belt tensioner was bad and it was putting to much tension on the alt pulley and ruining the bearings.
There is only one problem with that, belt tensioners are spring loaded and when they go bad the spring gets weaker not stronger.

 

Here's an idea although maybe not too ethical! Get the warranty replacement one and install it so you can get up and running. Then order one like the Bosch mentioned earlier. When it comes it remove the cheapo one and install the Bosch. Then take the warranted one and some electrical leads from the connections to an AC plug and plug the sucker in and watch the sparks fly until your breaker trips. Disconnect it and take it back to the local store and demand your money back for this non-working piece of crap.

It's ok to do this if you don't have strong feelings about Karma!

 

Hey Spike,

These guys are a good source for a used genuine LR alternator. They are honest, and keep a stock of plenty of used parts on the shelf. Since ya need a car immediately, the only suggestion I can make is to grab a rental for a week from Enterprise. Good luck.

http://www.britishautocenter.com/

 

I have no problem buying a brand new one and then returning the rebuilt one, I have been thinking about that...

I dont need to rent a car as I could always bring my work van home, the only problem with that is that I have no place to park the van, or even a rental car for that matter.
If my truck was at work I could park the van at home, but then I could not work on the truck. lol

 

packed & shipped, Good luck

 

Thank you Rod, I will mail you a check once it gets here.