Odyssey alternator took a dump earlier this weekend. Honda dealer was closed. Advance Auto had none in stock. O'Reillys had a single reman unit.
I bought it. Spent 2+ hours installing it. (berkeley this car is a pain in the ass to work on). Buttoned everything back up and... battery light. Voltmeter is showing no charging at all. Light will go off if I get over 3k rpm or so, but that's it.
Just to verify, I did take the original alternator to the store to bench test and they confirmed it was bad.
So tomorrow I get to make do with 1 car, hope I can acquire an alternator from Honda, then spend another 2 or 3 hours replacing an alternator all over again.
Yep. Lifetime warranty isn't worth it if you have to spend hours replacing it over and over.
I have made them put the "new" reman on their machine and test it before I brought it home.
Run_Away said:
Yep. Lifetime warranty isn't worth it if you have to spend hours replacing it over and over.
Agreed. Although having it die early in 50k miles would be a lot less annoything than never having it work at all.
I do wonder... Are parts store brands better for some vehicles than others? My Saturn is filled with parts store brand crap and other than the radiator, it's all good. I probably have hundreds of thousands of miles on alternators, water pumps, etc. over the last 10 years.
The Odyssey, basically if it doesn't come from the Honda dealer ($$$$$), it's garbage.
ProDarwin said:
I do wonder... Are parts store brands better for some vehicles than others? My Saturn is filled with parts store brand crap and other than the radiator, it's all good. I probably have hundreds of thousands of miles on alternators, water pumps, etc. over the last 10 years.
The Odyssey, basically if it doesn't come from the Honda dealer ($$$$$), it's garbage.
Toyotas seem to be the same way. They'll take abuse and give years of faithful service, but only if you feed them a special diet of OEM soft chew organic grass fed parts.
What brand was the reman alternator? My store sells Remy, Wilson and BBB. We used to carry A1 Cardone but we dropped them due to the absurd failure rate (almost 40%!).
Remanned parts are a crapshoot no matter what brand you end up with.
Dr. Hess said:
I have made them put the "new" reman on their machine and test it before I brought it home.
As a parts store employee. I have no problem with this. I would almost recommend it actually.
ProDarwin said:
Run_Away said:
Yep. Lifetime warranty isn't worth it if you have to spend hours replacing it over and over.
Agreed. Although having it die early in 50k miles would be a lot less annoything than never having it work at all.
I do wonder... Are parts store brands better for some vehicles than others? My Saturn is filled with parts store brand crap and other than the radiator, it's all good. I probably have hundreds of thousands of miles on alternators, water pumps, etc. over the last 10 years.
The Odyssey, basically if it doesn't come from the Honda dealer ($$$$$), it's garbage.
Yeah, pretty much every repair I've done on a Honda calls for OEM by most people. I've tried to go against that advice a few times and have had similar results to yours. Luckily, most of my Hondas haven't really needed anything outside of planned maintenance, so I've been able to order OEM stuff online.
As for store parts, I just had a "reman" power steering pump destroy itself on my E30. That thing made it all of 50 miles. I replaced it because the original one would whine a little at random points, otherwise it was fine. I wish I could have that core back.....
I went through 4 Mazda P5 passenger rear calipers in two weeks and I gave up on a Hyundai because the bad fuel pump I replaced with now was bad too right out of the box which made me take several different paths of repair trials before giving in.
kilgoretrout said:
Yeah, pretty much every repair I've done on a Honda calls for OEM by most people. I've tried to go against that advice a few times and have had similar results to yours. Luckily, most of my Hondas haven't really needed anything outside of planned maintenance, so I've been able to order OEM stuff online.
OEM parts for this thing are going to bankrupt me :(
$1400 for 2 OE engine mounts (I didn't do this, I did aftermarket and they are terrible)
$550 for a power steering pump
$390 for a reman from the dealer (after negotiating a bit)
And upcoming timing belt shenanigans are another $350+
ProDarwin said:
$1400 for 2 OE engine mounts (I didn't do this, I did aftermarket and they are terrible)
Crickey! What the hell are they making those things out of?
WonkoTheSane said:
ProDarwin said:
$1400 for 2 OE engine mounts (I didn't do this, I did aftermarket and they are terrible)
Crickey! What the hell are they making those things out of?
ohhhh, those must be the active mount ones.
aw614
New Reader
6/18/18 10:29 a.m.
The whole OEM thing is something that is bugging me what to do on my beater civic coupe. I need to do a headgasket so for sure that will be OEM, but the rest of the components, like the timing belt, waterpump and tensioner, can I get away with a gates set?
I dont plan on owning the car hopefully in 3-5 years, and the current belt is a gates unit and it seems fine. I can't seen to find a 96-00 oem timing belt replacement kit on ebay like I can on the 01-05 and b series motors on ebay. Seems getting them packaged together is a lot cheaper than buying each part separately
I did buy a non oem starter for an odyssey and its been nearly a year and it hasnt crapped out yet...(original was nearly 200k old...)
I just put an Advance Auto re-man alternator (Remy brand I think?) in my Saturn. Yes it works and charges, but it makes an annoying "whirrrr" noise that increases with revs. I would have liked to buy new, but they haven't built a Saturn in 10 years...
You can't hear it over highway noise, but it almost sounds like a supercharger around town. If it craps out I'll warranty it, but that job was way harder than it should have been. It's mounted on the firewall-side of the engine and you take it out through a window in the wheel-well. Ugh.
If the alternator grounds through the mount make sure to remove any oxidation before installing the new one, I've had that prevent an alternator from working on a Subaru after adjusting belt tension.
Adam
ProDarwin said:
The Odyssey, basically if it doesn't come from the Honda dealer ($$$$$), it's garbage.
I've had that experience on a few things with our 2010 Ody. Example: OE halfshafts replaced with CarQuest brand at 118k due to slop in inner CV's causing on-throttle vibration. Now, at 136k, the CarQuest parts are doing the same thing. hmmm, 18k or 118k, which do i choose? Next set will be over the counter from Honda.
Dr. Hess said:
I have made them put the "new" reman on their machine and test it before I brought it home.
100% this. can't tretat it like Sex Panther, where 60% of the time it works every time.
aw614 said:
I dont plan on owning the car hopefully in 3-5 years, and the current belt is a gates unit and it seems fine. I can't seen to find a 96-00 oem timing belt replacement kit on ebay like I can on the 01-05 and b series motors on ebay. Seems getting them packaged together is a lot cheaper than buying each part separately
I believe I read on HondaTech that Gates was the OEM for the belt. From that, I'd guess they are also the OEM for the tensioner and such too. On my 2000 model D series, I used RockAuto to order all Gates stuff. They sold me a kit with belt, tensioner, spring, and water pump. It all works perfectly.
The harder the part is to get to, the more likely I am to pay for OEM. Ditto on how likely it is to do damage if it fails. My scale runs from easy to get to, non critical parts which can be cheap remans, to internal engine parts that need to be OEM or very well reviewed big name brands. The other thing I usually buy OEM on are sensors. For some reason I've always had issues with aftermarket sensors.
I work at a parts warehouse. Remanufactured rotating electric (alternator/starter) parts quality can run the full range depending on brand. Single digit defect rate on alternators is considered pretty good (under 10%).
Something to note is that a LOT of in-field failures are actually not a failed alternator. Modern cars with their electronic charging control are sensitive to things like corroded cables and iffy connections. Always call the tech line if you have a problem when installing an alternator. Have your volt meter handy. The tech folks at the manufacturer should be able to help pinpoint a problem. If there's not a tech line to call...think about a different brand.
Remanufactured power steering is a mess. The whole industry. Nobody seems to do a great job. I wish we didn't sell it. I still use it on my personal stuff because new is so expensive.
ProDarwin said:
kilgoretrout said:
Yeah, pretty much every repair I've done on a Honda calls for OEM by most people. I've tried to go against that advice a few times and have had similar results to yours. Luckily, most of my Hondas haven't really needed anything outside of planned maintenance, so I've been able to order OEM stuff online.
OEM parts for this thing are going to bankrupt me :(
$1400 for 2 OE engine mounts (I didn't do this, I did aftermarket and they are terrible)
$550 for a power steering pump
$390 for a reman from the dealer (after negotiating a bit)
And upcoming timing belt shenanigans are another $350+
It is probably too late but the Honda P/S pumps usually gets noisy because of a 99 cent o-ring, not the actual unit.
Good lord, those are expensive mounts!
kilgoretrout said:
ProDarwin said:
kilgoretrout said:
Yeah, pretty much every repair I've done on a Honda calls for OEM by most people. I've tried to go against that advice a few times and have had similar results to yours. Luckily, most of my Hondas haven't really needed anything outside of planned maintenance, so I've been able to order OEM stuff online.
OEM parts for this thing are going to bankrupt me :(
$1400 for 2 OE engine mounts (I didn't do this, I did aftermarket and they are terrible)
$550 for a power steering pump
$390 for a reman from the dealer (after negotiating a bit)
And upcoming timing belt shenanigans are another $350+
It is probably too late but the Honda P/S pumps usually gets noisy because of a 99 cent o-ring, not the actual unit.
Good lord, those are expensive mounts!
I did replace the the o-ring first. Actual pump was bad... but it was a Napa pump in the car.
For alternators and starters ('rotating electrical' as we call it at work), finds a local place that will overhaul it for you. Like, take your unit, replace the parts with new, clean, etc. It's usually some 60 year old guy in a 20 x 20 room stuffed floor to ceiling with stators and magnets and bearings and brushes. Buy the cheap remanned unit as a stop-gap while your OEM unit gets overhauled.
