Need Automotive Help....

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

68mustang

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
875
Reaction score
35
Location
Oklahoma City
I would say that you have other choices other then the house brand. Every thing in auto zone says duralast. Where as orileys you can get ac deco, Borg warner, or even the house brand. I've put the duralast gold pads on my car and ce put the orileys house brand and the duralast squealed and howled and wore down faster. Ask most car people and not dead horse people and the majority will not use autozone. It may be my personal experiences but if I go into autozone with a part number in hand I still have to tell them make and model and argue that my car does in fact have that on there.


No need to get condescending tones on me either. I made a statement at a company why to avoid and it has been backed up by several people here about going elsewhere for parts, I even back up the culture that store breeds.

You can insert any brand company you want, it just so happens autozone was the one brought up. You can get other brands other than dura last from auto zone, I've picked up ford motorsports filters at autozone. I prefer O'Reilly's, but I've met dummies and ive met knowledgable people at all different brand stores. I'm just saying you qualifying autozone as a bad company by working as a parts guy for two weeks doesn't say much.

I'm not taking any of this from deadhorse, I hardly get on there anymore. But I see it all the time, ppl wanna go straight to the part blaming it instead of thinking that their car is the problem.
 

68mustang

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
875
Reaction score
35
Location
Oklahoma City
I cannot agree with you more on the last statement. I just went round and round with my carb and got more info and help with my odd situation over the phone with holley, the place that converted it and several different forums.

Now back on subject, have the alt tested I know they have both testers that can test on or off the car at most parts stores. And they will do it free. If it is a ground issue look into doing a big 3 ground upgrade.

Check the battery again because batteries that are not deep cycle don't like to be fully drained.

I agree with you on this. I think it's a guy thing, we wanna yell out different answers hoping to be right instead of trying to help diagnose the issues.

The reason autozone only offers one alternator instead of two, (1 for ac, 1 for without) is because they opted to only stock the higher amp alternator.

Don't trust the store testers. Have them
Test it while its on the vehicle. Within the year you'll probably see different brand store testers.

Car batteries are considered starting batteries, therefore if you drain them more than a couple times they're damaged.
 

68mustang

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
875
Reaction score
35
Location
Oklahoma City
My experience has been that O'Reilly's junk is better than Autozone's junk.

A lot of times they come from the same manufacture. A hint is to look at the stock photo of the part. If the photo is exactly the same it came from the same manufacture. The manufacture makes the photos a lot of times for the parts stores. This is how you can compare if Oreillys house brand is the same as autozones. I like using advanced auto parts for searching because they have customer feedback on most of their products. They were also the cheapest with their online discounts where you can buy online and pickup in store. I bought the same flywheel being sold from Oreillys or Autozone for almost half the cost. Also all three mentioned usually get their parts from the same supplier. You can go one step further and try to match the picture from the parts store to a specific brand picture on rockauto.com to decide who the supplier is.
 

gfercaks33

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
2,242
Reaction score
84
Location
okc
My experience has been that O'Reilly's junk is better than Autozone's junk.

That's what I'm getting at, I have never had bad out of box with orileys (Rockwell one is where it's at) .

One thing to keep in mind is don't get the cheap parts if you want them to last, get the best you can afford. If it is the alternator I would say replace it with an acdelco. What's the point of having a lifetime warrenty if you have to swap it every month.
 

Oklahomabassin

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Mar 27, 2007
Messages
24,975
Reaction score
23,420
Location
America!
Contrary to popular belief, you can diagnose many issues without being in person, given enough information and some mechanical ability on the receiving end.
This being the key part of that. If the other party doesn't know the difference between the 2 posts on a battery then no use in trying to troubleshoot without being present.
 
Last edited:

68mustang

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
875
Reaction score
35
Location
Oklahoma City
That's what I'm getting at, I have never had bad out of box with orileys (Rockwell one is where it's at) .

One thing to keep in mind is don't get the cheap parts if you want them to last, get the best you can afford. If it is the alternator I would say replace it with an acdelco. What's the point of having a lifetime warrenty if you have to swap it every month.

Exactly, but if you're talking duralast vs ultima. Same alternator. In fact, the AC Delco alternator either comes from two sources... China being one and probably the most plausible if it's new. If it's used then it probably comes from the same big name remanufactures.
 

71buickfreak

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
4,790
Reaction score
30
Location
stillwater
I use Powermaster alternators and starters, they are far superior to the junk from any of the parts stores.

The car needs to be seen by an actual mechanic. It sounds like the alternator is not being triggered to come on. This can come from several issues- bad ground, bad field connection, etc. These are not 1-wire alternators, there are 3 wires that must be connected- the main wire to the battery/starter, the field (the part that actually triggers the alternator to work), and the sensor wire (this goes to the gauge or dummy light), there may be others, depending on what type you have, but these are the basics.

It is most likely a ground issue, but you need to be able to run a few tests to actually figure it out. It could be as simple as a corroded terminal.
 

dennishoddy

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
84,556
Reaction score
61,836
Location
Ponca City Ok
Dennis what year bronco and was the starter a ford pmgr with a solenoid attached? If you walked out because they gave you that instead of a Ford 4" or 4.5" then you are mistaken as a PMGR is a MUCH better starter.

It was an 82 with the solenoid separate on the fender. The Starter was one that is similar in size to one on my lawn mower from auto zone. The starter that came off of it was the same that was used on fords since the 70's.

Using the proper equipment like an amp probe and voltage meter, its easy to diagnose the issues with a starter or battery. I didn't get into it because the OP didn't ask for technical information, like checking voltage differentials between the battery post and the cable, same with the cable length, or the differential between the starter post and the cable, all to detect corrosion.

A jumper cable can be used as a jumper to detect the same if one knows what they are doing.
 

Brandi

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
2,663
Reaction score
8
Location
OKC
Update: While preparing to remove the alternator she found some broken wires. She replaced the dongle and so far it seems to be working, a little time will tell us if it that was the cause or just one in a line of issues. I appreciate all the info and help! Thank you.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom