What Do Other People in My Situation Do?

[RockAuto]

Gaining insights from a relative handful of anonymous product reviews requires patience and skill at reading between the lines. Anonymous reviews of replacement auto parts are even sketchier. There are just too many parts and too many vehicle models to ever hope to get a meaningful number of useful reviews for any one part. RockAuto may have ten alternators with a choice of three amperage outputs that fit just one truck. Reviews of broad part types (alternators, thermostats...) and brands (ACDelco, Stant...) without any specific make, year, model, engine connections are likely to be nothing but vague opinions and biases.

RockAuto's heart icons () turn the extreme specificity of replacement auto parts into an advantage! A heart icon next to a part means it was ordered most frequently and returned least frequently for a specific vehicle. This is actual data from ALL customers facing similar repairs on the same vehicle. That is what makes heart icons great. They are based on data that automatically reflects the myriad things ALL customers purchasing that part for that vehicle have taken into account.

[dan tralton]

Many times an alternator or starter can be repaired properly much cheaper than buying a new or re-built unit. for alternators it is often the brushed simply wear down to the point they do not make proper contact with the armature.

[Big_kid]

For me, I'd rather replace the unit. Anything in between removal and re-installation is unnecessary work- You end up with new brushes on a worn armature, old bearings and tired diodes. For me, it's faster to replace as a unit and let the rebuilders do what they do best. Having a warranty on it doesn't hurt either. It's less money to replace the brushes, but time spent installing them, and eventual downtime when the next component fails. I HAVE done things like this in the past, but in most situations replacing the assembly makes the most financial sense.

[markmitch]

I have to agree with BIG_Kid I would rather just replace the unit then try to fix it myself. Beside the reasons he gave there's also the fact that as one ages the eyes don't work as good and neither does the dexterity. And then there is the time factor. Now everyone here knows my van has not been on the road in a long time but I still need it to start so I can work on other things or move it if needed.

[Huckleberry]

From now on I go ahead and replace components.
The water pump on my '92 was leaking out the back cover.
I replaced that gasket (which requires removing the pump)
and then it started leaking out the weep-hole.
Then I replaced the pump with a new one, which is only a $30 part.
Wasted a lot of time trying to "fix" a faulty pump.