killing 1jz alternators?? long explanation, need help!

Sep 10, 2007
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my 1jz seems to have killed two (one was the stock, one oem rebuild) alternators in a short amount of time. so here's what happened:

about 3-4 months ago, the "your alt. isn't charging" dash warning lights started coming on (and staying on for progressively longer periods of time) until the alt. stopped doing its job altogether. I quickly replaced the alt. with a reman'd advance auto SC300 alt.

after that, everything seemed fine until about 2 weeks later it randomly started acting like it was losing power (if headlights where on, dash lights would dim/fade), and then the 3 alt. not-not-charging lights would flicker quickly right before it would return to normal operation.

i ignored this because the car was going to be down for some work for 1-2 months. so after I got the car back, it was doing the same weird thing, where the dash illumination lights would fade and would act like the alt wasn't charging, but just for about 30 seconds to a minute i would say.

then two days ago, while driving, the alternator must have just stopped working, because the car would just run off of the battery until it quickly died. it would jumpstart, run fine for 45 seconds, then die. no dash lights, no charging lights, it would just run until it drained the battery after the jump.

so i parked it, and messed with it a few times (jumped it, drove it around), until one last time it was about to die and I had my foot to the floor and it was like a flick of a switch because it came back to life and back to normal....for 2 days and over 100 miles.

Driving home from work last night, it did the same thing, no dash warning lights at all coming on, but the dash illumination lights would just quickly fade and the car would be dieing. Jumped it twice, tried "messing with it" to get it to switch back to normal mode, and then parked it in a neighborhood where it is sitting now.




any ideas of what is actually going on? I have a warranty on the alternator and the day off today, so I will be swapping them but I don't want to have the same problem!!

thanks for reading my long-winded issue
 
Sep 10, 2007
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SupraMario;1483502 said:
Sounds like a loose wire somewhere for it to work then not work.

that's what i was thinking, but i checked the two alternator connections, and its kinda hard to F those up...should i be adding a ground to the block maybe??

now that i think about it, is there a fuseable link in the charging system that could be half-blown maybe? on another supra, the fuseable link in the under-hood fuse block blew and had me scratching my head lol.
 

SupraMario

I think it was the google
Mar 30, 2005
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88mkIIIproject;1483507 said:
that's what i was thinking, but i checked the two alternator connections, and its kinda hard to F those up...should i be adding a ground to the block maybe??

now that i think about it, is there a fuseable link in the charging system that could be half-blown maybe? on another supra, the fuseable link in the under-hood fuse block blew and had me scratching my head lol.

Have you checked all of your fuses?
 
Sep 10, 2007
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Poodles;1483513 said:
Could just be a bad rebuild (seen in waaaaaay too many times).

yea this might be the issue, because it acted fine for a little bit after the replacement. i'm just not sure if there is an issue that is killing the alt.'s?

it is a "worldwide automotive" alternator....sounds pretty crappy!! lol

does anyone have a source for cheaper 1jz/sc300 aftermarket/toyota/lexus alternators???
 

SupraMario

I think it was the google
Mar 30, 2005
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88mkIIIproject;1483522 said:
i have not thoroughly checked the fuses yet...but for an intermittent problem??

Yep, my whole fuel issue, if you look around to find a thread I started about me thinking my walbro fuel pump was dead, stimmed down to a 7.5 amp ign fuse that had built up crud all over it and it was basically letting and then not letting current through it selectively.

Check your fuses.
 

JonoTurbo

Going for broke
Mar 30, 2005
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88mkIIIproject;1483521 said:
does anyone have a source for cheaper 1jz/sc300 aftermarket/toyota/lexus alternators???

Go to a junkyard. If you can't get a decent price on an SC300 one, get an SC400 one and grind down the back of the top mount hole 1/4". Generally, for some reason the SC400 ones tend to be cheaper.
 
Sep 10, 2007
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I swapped out the alternator and warrantied it on tuesday, and all seems fine for now!!

i also did it in record time in my book lol. got the new one in and car running in 17.5 minutes!! haha.

I do want to further investigate what's going on tomorrow so we'll see if i find anything wrong!
 
Sep 10, 2007
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so far, so good.....I have put plenty of daily driving miles on it, and just got back from a road trip over the weekend.

hopefully my luck lasts!!