Alternators!

[nikjt]

Hi All,
I thought I would just share my experience of Commander alternators!
We went on holdiday this xmas, on the way down to Bright Victoria from Newcastle the alternator light came on, then off, then on, and by the time we got to Bright, just on!
Not great news as I had been planning to take my partner across to Craigs Hut to propose on NY day!

A few calls around, turned out the only place we could get it fixed before NY was City Jeep in Melbourne which we booked it in for on the Monday, however the challenge was to actually get the car there!

A trip to SCA and a battery charger to charge the battery before the trip, and we setoff, steadily watching the battery voltage drop throught out the trip!
By Benalla, it was down to 12v, and then Syemour we were bordering 11v and starting to realise we weren't going to make it!

By the luck of the gods, then alternator cut back in for a random 5mins boosting us back to 12v! By the time we reached City Jeep, 10.8v and no fuel, we just made it, we couldn't believe it!

off for a coffee while they plugged it in and checked it out, yep alternator not working (surprise), and the cost for a new one sir is $1500 (very very big surprise!!!), oh and by the way you need to replace the pulley because they fail when you try to remove them, ok, $600!!! (for a pulley!!!)


Unfortunately not many options at this point so we walked away with a $2500 bill for changing the alternator!! Slowly beginning to very much dislike this car, in fact my old Land rover defender 200TDi was more reliable and significantly cheaper to fix and maintain!

Anyway, the rest of the holiday went well, the Jeep enjoyed the High Country tracks, and she said yes so it made it all worth it....

I now have a $2100 piece of scrap alternator that I'm determined to rebuild as a spare!

Nik

[darksidecustoms]

Wow glad to hear you got it sorted at such short notice but sorry to hear this was to resort to using the stealership. I presume those costs were including labour? Ridiculous that the pulley was $600 though...

[08crd]

It's stupid prices like that, causing everyone to purchase gear from overseas.

[anthonygubbin]

Yerr that sux, big-time. With your Commander keep an eye on the tansfer case. Some of them have issues which can cause the front diffs to essentially cook and destroy the diff. Pretty certain it was the models that have a type of e locker, so may not apply to yours. I have seen one which was rebuilt and it cost the bloke 4k to do the build only to have it fail a second time due to a seperate mechanical issue. His was under warranty, I believe but Jeeps in SA refused to do the repair as the job was too difficult, go figure.

Regards A

[GPCDR]

Nik,
Did they give you a possible cause of the alternator failure? When my alternator failed it was due to oil leaking on it. Fit a splash shield, its cheap insurance.

Have a look at this post:

http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...t=gpcdr&page=2

[nikjt]

They didn't give a cause of failure, I have the old one, and it doesn't seem too oily, the car has done 170k km's, so maybe it is just worn out?
What I will check though is that they installed the splash guard as stated in the service bulletin, I don't think they did, and if it is part of a TSB I reckon they should have!
I'm sure they are a cheap part and the bulletin says that it clips on so might be just as easy to buy the part and install it.

What is kinda annoying though, is that the alternator can be found in the USA for $350 USD and the pulley for $210 USD, plus a little postage and I'm sure it would still come under $1000 AUD........but you need to know that your alternator is going,and it needs to happen near home so you can lay it up and wait for parts to arrive!

Nik

[Fud]

I had to replace mine a while ago, sourced a brand new unit from jeeepart recyclers for $880. Pretty sure it came with the pulley.

Regards
Aaron