Don't wait too long. A failing alternator could take out a perfectly good battery. Then you end up replacing both. Been there, done that.
If the gauge shows normal, I should be okay until this blizzard's over, yeah?
Yeah. Just do it the first break in weather. You might want to go get it and have it sitting so that you can jump on it when you get an opportunity. It would suck to get around to it and find the part store does not have one on the shelf. Core charge is the same no matter how long it takes.
Don't wait too long. A failing alternator could take out a perfectly good battery. Then you end up replacing both. Been there, done that.
Back in my 20s I had an old Chevy van that started out its life an ambulance. One of the many nice features from its former occupation that it came with was two batteries. There was a four position switch under the drivers seat that let you select either one, both, or none. I once went about two months with a dead alternator by just keeping one battery in reserve and putting a charger on them when I got home. I didn't do much night driving though.
I've swapped the alternator about 40K miles ago. Seems like a short life span but there you go. It has a new belt; it screamed all winter; I took it in to have it looked at and they said one of the tensioners was shot. I had them replace that set and they said the belt was still good. After a day or two, the screaming came back and they sheepishly put a new belt on and all is well. No offer to refund any of the bill for the tensioners but it was $120 and karma being what it is, I deemed that to be not worthwhile. But then a similar but different noise came back so I ran in again and they first said that one of the new tensioners had probably failed so they'd swap it out no charge. Called me up and said it was the alternator. But it's still charging so I have some time, says me. So anyway I'll do that repair myself and tell myself that's the $120 saved.
Don't wait too long. A failing alternator could take out a perfectly good battery. Then you end up replacing both. Been there, done that.
Since you are going that far, do both of the front struts and the top bearing plates as well. The bearing plates are what have those three bolts that you see in the well that the top of the strut goes into. Most people forget about the bearing plates. Car not that critical, truck on old logging roads, definitely replace.
Have re-read and thought about this post several times. I had a mechanic replace the front struts with Bilstein shocks a few years ago and they are still good. Perhaps I should replace the bearing plates even if I do not replace the shocks? Or simply swap out the front struts at the same time even if they are still decent because the whole exercise will take so much time and energy?
The bearing plates are pretty easy to do and will not require a re alignment. Just take the strut nut off, let the strut drop out and you just have the three bolts to take care of. Simple R & R job. Half an hour to an hour each side. A shop could do it in 15 minutes with power tools. Steering will become smoother, easier and should feel more responsive.
I am a park and self-propel person meself. I don't even have AT tires, just 4-season M&S.
Mind you, I discovered with the '93 Nissan Pathfinder we previously owned that I could go where a lot of larger trucks could not go due to the shorter wheel base, lower height and possibly better driving skills.
When the 4X4 was a FWD Nissan Sentra wagon from the 1980s, I would go flying by lifted 4X4 trucks and so-called off-road SUVs stuck during snow falls on the Coquihalla highway. It was fun to wave good-bye from the 1.6 litre, 4-banger 'ricer'.
You should click on that second link Kurt posted up there and do a little reading about his truck (and his skills).
I am a park and self-propel person meself. I don't even have AT tires, just 4-season M&S.
Mind you, I discovered with the '93 Nissan Pathfinder we previously owned that I could go where a lot of larger trucks could not go due to the shorter wheel base, lower height and possibly better driving skills.
When the 4X4 was a FWD Nissan Sentra wagon from the 1980s, I would go flying by lifted 4X4 trucks and so-called off-road SUVs stuck during snow falls on the Coquihalla highway. It was fun to wave good-bye from the 1.6 litre, 4-banger 'ricer'.
Anyone have a dash-cam? We're seriously considering installing one in P's new ride. I really like the idea of the type that installs on or replaces the central rear-view mirror.
I don't, but I'd get one that has a g-sensor and saves the video when there is a shock. Should record the shock too, to show that yes, you were going like a bat when you ran up my klakus.
Driving the kids to school yesterday morning, I heard some punk kid behind us as we pulled up at a stop sign, sounded like he was skidding in the gravel. That irritation was short lived, as I pulled away from the stop, the sound started again. The ABS light on the dash came on, so I figured something awry with the brakes (I'm smart like that) so I dropped the kids off, drove 30 miles to work and dropped the truck off at the garage... $560 later, new front wheel bearings (installed as some sort of un-serviceable cassette nowadays, can't even lube them), and the thing is rolling like a dream. When the bearing went out, it destroyed the ABS sensor and that's part of the new cassette so I actually didn't have to pay/fix anything brake related.
Of course there was a sharp intake of breath at the surprise expense but I youtubed the repair and watched 10 minutes of one where the guy says "they claim it's a 2-hour job and charge hundreds for it but I'm going to show you how they rip you off" then he proceeded to spend a 20 minute video, a lot of it on time lapse and a lot of edits, pounding and whanging and using $10,000 worth of tools and yeah if I had the tools I could have done it but not in my driveway and not in a day. I think he probably spent over an hour on the one wheel. So all in all, I think my front end's probably good for a few more years and I'm okay with the price I paid.
The alternator's giving out, tho. I'll probably wait until it's warmer and do that one myself. And wish I'd paid a guy. But I think I can get that done in an hour. We'll see.
Yeah... sometimes it's best to put the white flag up. I consider myself a pretty decent mechanic... when it comes to my truck, I'd say way better than anybody that can work on it. When it comes to front wheel drive cars I'll do the basic remove/ replace items. Beyond that I'll fly the white flag most times. You've got to weigh the cost of your time vs. money spent to get it done by someone who should know what they're doing.
This shop put tires on and did the front end alignment for $410. About half the price of anywhere else and that's without the alignment. So they get a few gimmes.
Location: Really deep in the heart of South California Gender:
Posted:
Apr 9, 2019 - 3:23pm
ScottFromWyoming wrote:
Driving the kids to school yesterday morning, I heard some punk kid behind us as we pulled up at a stop sign, sounded like he was skidding in the gravel. That irritation was short lived, as I pulled away from the stop, the sound started again. The ABS light on the dash came on, so I figured something awry with the brakes (I'm smart like that) so I dropped the kids off, drove 30 miles to work and dropped the truck off at the garage... $560 later, new front wheel bearings (installed as some sort of un-serviceable cassette nowadays, can't even lube them), and the thing is rolling like a dream. When the bearing went out, it destroyed the ABS sensor and that's part of the new cassette so I actually didn't have to pay/fix anything brake related.
Of course there was a sharp intake of breath at the surprise expense but I youtubed the repair and watched 10 minutes of one where the guy says "they claim it's a 2-hour job and charge hundreds for it but I'm going to show you how they rip you off" then he proceeded to spend a 20 minute video, a lot of it on time lapse and a lot of edits, pounding and whanging and using $10,000 worth of tools and yeah if I had the tools I could have done it but not in my driveway and not in a day. I think he probably spent over an hour on the one wheel. So all in all, I think my front end's probably good for a few more years and I'm okay with the price I paid.
The alternator's giving out, tho. I'll probably wait until it's warmer and do that one myself. And wish I'd paid a guy. But I think I can get that done in an hour. We'll see.
Yeah... sometimes it's best to put the white flag up. I consider myself a pretty decent mechanic... when it comes to my truck, I'd say way better than anybody that can work on it. When it comes to front wheel drive cars I'll do the basic remove/ replace items. Beyond that I'll fly the white flag most times. You've got to weigh the cost of your time vs. money spent to get it done by someone who should know what they're doing.
Driving the kids to school yesterday morning, I heard some punk kid behind us as we pulled up at a stop sign, sounded like he was skidding in the gravel. That irritation was short lived, as I pulled away from the stop, the sound started again. The ABS light on the dash came on, so I figured something awry with the brakes (I'm smart like that) so I dropped the kids off, drove 30 miles to work and dropped the truck off at the garage... $560 later, new front wheel bearings (installed as some sort of un-serviceable cassette nowadays, can't even lube them), and the thing is rolling like a dream. When the bearing went out, it destroyed the ABS sensor and that's part of the new cassette so I actually didn't have to pay/fix anything brake related.
Of course there was a sharp intake of breath at the surprise expense but I youtubed the repair and watched 10 minutes of one where the guy says "they claim it's a 2-hour job and charge hundreds for it but I'm going to show you how they rip you off" then he proceeded to spend a 20 minute video, a lot of it on time lapse and a lot of edits, pounding and whanging and using $10,000 worth of tools and yeah if I had the tools I could have done it but not in my driveway and not in a day. I think he probably spent over an hour on the one wheel. So all in all, I think my front end's probably good for a few more years and I'm okay with the price I paid.
The alternator's giving out, tho. I'll probably wait until it's warmer and do that one myself. And wish I'd paid a guy. But I think I can get that done in an hour. We'll see.
It was the same deal with replacing the bushings on my son's 98 Civic EX. That generation Civic had four wheel independent suspension (trailing arm and upper/lower control arms in the rear), which was pretty unusual for a basic economy car. Great having such a nice ride in a basic transport vehicle, but the downside was, when you are trying to squeeze 200K out of the very willing engine, around 150K miles, the bushings on the rear trailing arm start to deteriorate and need replacing. Like your bearings, they are pressed in and require a special tool to remove them easily (I learned long ago to not try and take critical press-fit components like bearings out with a hammer)
We managed to find a shop that does great work at a good price; they even did an alignment of the rear wheels no extra charge.
