91 Legacy Wagon Alternator shot?

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andrew embassy - 18 Mar 2005 20:09 GMT

I've got a 91 Subaru Legacy AWD Wagon, with 216K on it. The thing is
awesome.

But I'm pretty sure my alternator is shot. Wednesday night my car
started having the Battery and "Stop lamp" lights come on when the
RPM's dropped around 1K, and sure enough it died at a stoplight shortly
afterwards and the battery was totally drained. Next morning I bought
a new battery and it worked fine, but the Stop Lamp and Battery lights
came on after not too long, and last night, sure enough, the battery
died right as I pulled up to a Karaoke bar. Killed my Karaoke buzz
right quick.

So- am I right in assuming that this is probably alternator trouble?
As I was driving the thing home (after a lengthy jumper cable
charge/jump) I would turn my lights on and the car would immediately
start to die and the engine was obviously put under more load, so I had
to kind of switch between fog lights and no lights just to keep it
running (for a while, it died pretty quick).

Anybody got any ideas on where I should get a new alternator? I'm not
interested in taking it to the dealer because they extract the cash
from your a.s. If you're in Seattle, do you know anyplace good around
Greenwood? Should I go to a junkyard and get an alternator and install
it myself? I've never done it before but I've got friends to help...

Thanks!

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Peter D. Hipson - 18 Mar 2005 23:28 GMT

If you feel comfortable doing the replacement, go to any *good* auto
parts store for a replacement. I (personally) do not recommend used
parts for electrical, wear, etc., items.

>I've got a 91 Subaru Legacy AWD Wagon, with 216K on it. The thing is
>awesome.
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
>Thanks!

Reply to this Message

bowgus - 19 Mar 2005 02:18 GMT

And ... chances are the replacement one will be rebuilt (maybe indicated by
an R in the part number) which may or may not be ok (just had a rebuilt
starter pack it in ... replaced at no cost though because I picked it up at
the dealers) hence the lower than dealer price for a new one, and there may
be a few dollars for turning in your old one. I'd compare prices ... the
dealer price, all things taken into consideration, may turn out to be not
that bad.

> If you feel comfortable doing the replacement, go to any *good* auto
> parts store for a replacement. I (personally) do not recommend used
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> >
> >Thanks!

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Snow - 23 Mar 2005 13:30 GMT

90% of all waterpumps, alternators, starters among other things are rebuilt,
even some of those sold as new are infact reconditioned, best thing the OP
can do is either pull his old alternator or have a shop pull it then take it
into an autoparts place and have them load test it, if it fails then he has
a few choices open to him, buy the rebuild kit (sounds like the OP has
limited mechanical experience, so NOT recommended), buy a used one from a
wrecker ( still needs to test and possibly rebuild it), buy a rebuilt from a
parts place ( doesn't matter dealer or parts store) generally places have 2
or 3 models for a vehicle and 2 or 3 prices, each price increase will also
be an increase in warranty, amps etc. The OP can even look in the yellow
pages and he may find a shop that rebuilds these cheaper then buying one.

Snow...

> If you feel comfortable doing the replacement, go to any *good* auto
> parts store for a replacement. I (personally) do not recommend used
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>>
>>Thanks!

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