Car alternator :(

The other night, on the way home from work, my car's battery light turned on. I made it home alright, and decided to ask my dad (He used to be a mechanic) what's wrong with it. The first thing he said is that it's probably the alternator, and the cheapest alternator, probably re-built and used, would cost me still around $100.00. So we checked it yesterday, and it looked fine. We thought it may have just been a problem with the battery light. I drove my car to school, and on the way home it started freaking out. The turn signal light was going slower, and the speedometer kept going back and forth. After a while, even the RPM thing went to zero. I had to drive home with no A.C, in the Arizona heat (It was pretty cool today, only about 98). Now I called up my dad, and he confirms it's the alternator . He doesn't want to fix it himself with my help because the alternator is in a very weird spot, and it would take too much time. He wants to take it in to a shop . This is going to cost me A LOT of money! Christ, I've worked at this horrible horrible job for almost 5 months now, and all I have to show for it is around $450.00, and some things I've bought. IT'S ALL GOING TO BE GONE! (or most of it if I'm lucky). THIS SUCKS!!! 5 months of work is going to have been for nothing other than what I've already bought. I think I'll just quit my job . I've been saving up for a while too so I can buy some things. My parents have plenty of money, and they're probably not even going to pay for it. Life f-ing sucks.

If the alternator is 7-15 years old between rebuilds its probably 1$ carbon brushs or 25$ diodes! If the coils in it look all coroded then its worth 100$. LOL I could do it all for 120$ if you lived close.

Although the whole point of your posts seems to be the dread of your situation, my advice is to weigh your options. The previous posts suggests costs of the internal parts for your alternator; which are pretty close. Your situation is that you know very little about fixing cars and your Dad is of not much help. You need to bite the bullet and either pay out the money (which sucks) or start educating yourself on how to repair things yourself, which will only help you over and over in life. Just my thoughts - good luck.

Herman,

Hit the Internet up for information and make the repair yourself. I'm no car man but I have changed out alternators before. It sucks getting under a dirty car and cutting up your knuckles but it's good for the soul when all is said and done.



A little information and a few hours will save you huge bucks

Well thanks for the help everyone, but I already wound up taking it in haha. The good thing is, my parents helped out. I'm going to have to pay them back little by little, but they at least helped so it didn't take away all of my money at once. I was actually thinking of going into an auto-repair class or something... My dad was a mechanic, and he's really good with cars, but he's always too busy to help.

-thanks again.