Fun drive home the other night

[Lynn LeFey]

We live in Collinsville, IL, a suburb of the greater St Louis metropolitan area. Friday night, while driving to our friends' house, we had some weird indicator light stuff happen. Nothing else. The battery and brake lights would come on at the same time, flicker, go off, come back on. But no problem with the car.

These friends live on the far side of the metro area. Its about 45 miles. We usually take the outer belt. It's a little longer, but less traffic. So we headed back over Saturday night, and took a shorter route, being a bit paranoid. Good thing.

While crossing the bridge across the Mississippi river on the way home, the radio goes out, then the lights go dim. Shortly after, we leave the area of the highway that has street lights. By good fortune, it had snowed a few days before, and was a full moon. Otherwise, we would have had to stop in East St. Louis. East St. Louis is what everyone would call 'the bad part of town'.

We pushed on and the car finally conked out about 100 yards from our exit.. and about 200 yards from our service shop. We had to call a towtruck to move the car a distance I could have literally pushed it myself.. if it wasn' t uphill. $80 for the tow.

$30 for a one day rental of a Chevy micromachine. Err, I mean Sonic.

Replace alternator and belt...$900

But you know... we were just going to spend that money on dumb stuff anyway... like bills. Its never fun to get hit with big expenses right after Christmas.

Also... Smart Phones are awesome. We found a towtruck place online in mere moments. That's a nice feeling.

[KDX]

Glad to hear everything worked out all right (except for the expenses that is).

[PTRSAK]

    $900 for an Alternator and belt??? 

Damn!!    I replaced the alternator on my Falcon Ute last year and it cost $140 for a new 120A alternator. I fitted it myself, 2 bolts and 2 plugs, 1/2 hour work including washing up afterwards.

Was the belt by Versace or something?

[lowtech]

Alternator change on my Opel (Vauxhall) Vectra was shy of 500,- about a year ago.

Seems the car is constructed so well that you need to take off teh löower engine mount to fiddle out the old and in the new belt.

Alternator itself was only around 200 € of the bill.

And it was only the brushes that were gone....About 10 years ago brushes and diodes were parts sold seperately for about 20,- and could be swapped with 2 Phillips screws.

Modern high tech and modular construction has it´s downfalls me thinks...

[Whoey]

they're pushing tech hard to eliminate backyard mechanics...

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's easy to say that you could do it yourself, but at the side of the road, in the middle of the night, with no replacement parts and no tools (sadly a Leatherman or SAK is virtually useless to change an alternator) it's a pretty well insurmountable issue- especially if you'd rather not leave your car at the side of the road overnight.

The sad part is, and this is why I've ordered a new Jeep, $900 is two, maybe three month's payments on a new car.  When you think about it that way, and that at least then you can budget for payments rather than have wonderful surprises like this it makes you wonder if a new car with a warranty is not a bad idea.

This is what made me finally decide to get a new Jeep.  I love my old one and I'd like to keep it till the end of time, but these surprise repairs can mount up.  Right now I'm probably looking at a transmission rebuild and new clutch ($1,500 or so), about $1,000 worth of bodywork and new tires (5x $200) so that works out to almost a year's worth of payments on a new one, just to fix mine up, and that is assuming nothing else goes wrong.

Def

[MultiMat]

$900 is a lot of dosh Lynn

[kmanct3]

Hi Lynn, Glad you made it ok. I am an ASE Certified Auto Tech for an independant repair shop,at least in my area that price seems a touch on the steep side. As Whoey stated ,they have been trying to push out back yarders for a while, they are even making it hard for us independants luckily my boss sends me to school on a regular basis.My brother and a few of my friends work at dealerships and its not easy on them either. I wish the car designers were forced to work on cars so they could see what we have to go through...sorry for the rant Anyways glad you got home safe

[Lynn LeFey]

many MANY moons past, I replaced the alternator on my Chevy Cavalier. It was 2 bolts and an hour of cussing, with someone who knew what they were doing watching. The alternator was like $100.

As Grant pointed out, the cost was about that of a few months car payment, and if a repair like this shows up a couple times a year, its still cheaper than getting a new car.

I'm not sure why it cost so much on this repair. It's a 2001 Hundai Santa Fe. Never worked on it, and never intend to. Sorry, I have zero interest in Auto repair. I change my own flats and that's the extent of my desire to fix cars.And, other that this, the car has actually been incredibly reliable, and I'm sure not going to fault a car for having an 11 year old alternator go out.

We carry a small tool kit in the back of the car, far superior to any Multitool, but far short of fantastic. One of those 130-piece kits. I insisted to my hubby that we have one for the house and one for the car. If only they could figure out a way to make them weight 7oz.

[Grant Lamontagne]

At 11 years old you have to expect problems like that. I replaced my starter and alternator last summer. It turned out neither needed replacing, but it was just a matter of time anyway.

$900 does seem a bit excessive for an alternator swap, but it's done now and you should enjoy being back on the road.  You might also want to check the battery. If its the original battery and you've been having alternator problems then its probably on its way out as well. It should cost less than $100 and you don't need any major mechanical knowledge to put it in.  I have done it with a multitool in a parking lot.

Good luck and happy motoring!

Def

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[Lynn LeFey]

The battery was replaced in September. That was the only reason we got as far as we did, apparently. Once the alternator was replaced the guys at the shop said the battery took a charge nicely. I know those two things tend to go out in proximity of one another, but it seems to be alternator/battery, not battery/alternator in my experience. Anyway, I hope car drama is over now for a while.

[jzmtl]

Yeah, even if you know exactly how, roadside repair with minimum tools, and in winter is impossible. My starter conked out last year but luckily it was in a parking lot close to home so I called a ride back, then went back later to push start it. Turned out the fix was easy but impossible to do in the field.

But vehicles this age (2000) pretty much everything on it is about to die. I know I need new motor mount, probably a rear main seal, a battery, and a bunch of other stuff. While I'm perfectly capable of doing all these I no longer enjoy it like I did when I was younger. So yeah, I'm also considering a different car, even though the jeep is very easy to maintain, and capable in winter (got myself out of waist deep snowbank in 20 minutes, try that with a car!)

[Grant Lamontagne]

They still make Jeeps Jie! 

Def

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[PTRSAK]

Yes, Hopefully that is one job behind you for a while.
When the alternator that I had to replace died it was at night 200km from home at the end of a 900km trip back from the middle of Outback Australia. And the first thing I knew about it was the radio flicking off and back on again and the headlights going dim...
Luckily I was traveling in convoy with another vehicle and we ended up swapping batteries, letting his 4WD charge my flat one while I drove on his fresh battery. Being at night with Headlights and Driving lights on, the battery ran down rather quickly (the lights started to lose their dark penetration) and we stopped and swapped back again once my battery had taken a charge from his alternator.
This leapfrogging method of progress meant we were home about 2 hours later than planned, but at least we weren't stuck on the side of the road.

[Pacu]

worst thing to change yourself at home is a serpentine belt. My hands were bloody hamburger by the time i got done. Wife was in school so no zar to have someone fix it.

My alternator failed in a Taco Bell drive thru right at the window in my ole 96 chevy s-10.

 
 

[jzmtl]

They still make Jeeps Jie! 

Def

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Oh, did I mention I got 11 MPG in city traffic on my last tank?   

[Lynn LeFey]

Oh, did I mention I got 11 MPG in city traffic on my last tank?   

 
'Feed me, Seymour! I'm a hungry jeep.'

[nuphoria]

That's no fun Lynn.... cars do lunch to eat your cash from time to time!

[derekmac]

Oh, did I mention I got 11 MPG in city traffic on my last tank?   

That's not too bad....  Well actually it is, but hey, that's the cost of owning a Jeep. 

I get around 16 combined in my Grand, and I try to drive as easy as I can to keep it up that high 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I don't check my mileage.  It would probably really depress me if I did, so I'm happy with my blissful ignorance.

Def

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[Mr. Whippy]

they're pushing tech hard to eliminate backyard mechanics...

This has been a not so secret goal of the automotive industry for over a decade.  Repairs are a huge cash cow for them and they are getting closer to realizing it. 

That's pretty steep for an independent, however.  Glad it all turned out ok.

[jzmtl]

That's one of the reasons I don't want to get rid of my jeep, engine bay size of a barn, I put a full size spade shovel in there, heck I even know people who put a basket on top of exhaust manifold to grill food while driving.

To access the coolant reservoir on my parents' civic I need to spend 3 minutes wiggle it out of the corner between fender and bumper, then another 5 to wiggle it back in while shining a flashlight to make sure everything lines up.