I replaced my alternator and battery last week. The new alt went bad after bout 2 days. Is there something that might be causing the alt to fry (ie...electrical prob) or is it likely that I just got a defective part? Thanks in advance for your expertise.

 

I would be checking for a short on your wiring

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jwebb10 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I replaced my alternator and battery last week. The new alt went bad after bout 2 days. Is there something that might be causing the alt to fry (ie...electrical prob) or is it likely that I just got a defective part? Thanks in advance for your expertise.</TD></TR></TABLE>

is it the first time it blows after you replaced it, or was this the third time? might have gotten a dud, its been known to happen. try with another one. give it a little test after you do it, see how its charging and what not. most shops can do it for you, matter of fact, if it was done at a shop, they should have done it.

 

Could it have anything to do with those amplifiers you've got in the trunk.

If it was a re-man, it may have been victim of a "hail-Mary" and a defective voltage regulator. (Plausable)
The only other valid reason for an alternator to fail would be
1) Broken Belt (duh!!!!)
2) Excessive load on system (shorted battery) or accessories which draw more current than the alternator can produce.

More than likely, you got a bad one

 

if u installed a cheap non-factory alternator ( auto-zone) ( checker ) i would say put a honda 1 in and retry,

Now when u say it went bad does that mean it won't charge, battery lite came on?or is it noisy??
if there was a short most likely would blow the alt fuse first . so i cannot see that being the problem ..Quick question have u cleaned the engine since the alternator was installed with water hose ??
Why did u have to replace alt and battery last week??

 

Yep, I think my mistake was picking up an alt at Napa instead of Honda. Dumb move, I know. You live, you learn.

No noise or anything, it just wouldn't charge. No water on the engine or under the hood as far as I know, the old alt was just plain old and clearly the car was neglected by the prior owner.

I took the old alt back to Napa and switched it out, it did test bad. I just don't want this situation to keep repeating itself. No blown fuses to speak of, just a car in my driveway that I can't use at the moment.

Thanks for helping out. We'll see what happens when we drop the new (yet still not a Honda) alt in tomorrow.

 

NAPA ones arent that bad, we've never had one come back at the shop that I work at, they are pretty good, I've installed atleast 20 in the last couple of months for diff. customers.