Looks like my alternator took a crap on me today. I was following a couple of friends in their S2000's at about 80 miles an hour, when suddenly my radio shut off. While I'm trying to figure out what was going on with my radio, my A/C cuts off. Lights start dimming and my volt meter was reading slightly above 8 volts.



Hit a quick u-turn and headed directly home. Battery tested at 7.81 volts, Stuck it on the charger for a couple of hours and now it's holding steady at 13 volts.



I assume it's the alternator since the battery has been holding it's charge well since the recharge. Will an Autozone or Pepboys alternator do? Or should I be considering something else. The only aftermarket accessories I'm running in this car are an Alpine amp, Clarion head unit and DSP. My needs shouldn't be high.

 

did your warning lights come on? they all should.



I would but the battery back in. start the car. and put a voltmeter on the batter and alt. and see what happens. if it's under 12-13 then it's dead.

 

ahh just saw the post about your lights on.



your alt is toast.



personaly I would stay away from the local store ones. but the mazda ones are quite pricy I think. local parts places should have lifetime warrenty I think. just means you might have to run into this a few more times.

 

just buy a rebuilt one for like 140. thats what i did and it works great. some places even give you a warrenty.

 

get an fd alt?

 

Would need to find one tomorrow.

 

hm....call up .. FD WAREHOUSE

 

I have one on the way

 

Got the alternator replaced, it took a whole 10 minutes. The longest part of the job was getting my strut bar off.



I ended up purchasing an alternator from O'Reilly. They were $124 plus core. Every other parts store was at least $50 higher and didnt have them in stock. Mazda was crazy $220 plus a $80 core fee.



Volt gauge is back around 13 volts, running the car with all accessories on. My idiot lights went back out also. Woohoo!