legacycentral bbs

We are a two Subaru family and I happen to drive the 2001 Legacy which just turned over 156,000 miles today. One thing that crossed my mind was how a couple of my other cars ended up with failing alternators, and each of them left me stranded. My Legacy still has the original alternator and I'm wondering how long I leave it in? This car receives every bit of preventative maintenance I can give it, so do I replace it before it stops working? I do take some long drives and really don't want to get stranded.

There's no way of knowing until it goes. My 1990's lasted just under 250k miles. Whatever the case, your old OEM one is a safer bet than changing it for an auto parts store rebuilt, but even carrying an extra battery is a better bet than those. You might want to have an alternator on hand if you're real concerned and if a new OEM one is too much money, pick up a used OEM one. Carry it and the tools you'd need to swap it in the trunk. Since it's such an easy job, you can just swap it out at the first sign of trouble. If you have a stick shift, you don't even have to worry if you end up running on battery power since you can push start it if necessary, but if it kills the battery by overcharging, you'll still be stuck unless you want to carry an extra one of those, carefully maintaining the charge, as well.

My 01 alternator died at 154,000. Interestingly it died almost exactly 1 year after my ss alternator died. Both times were at the dealership when I was visiting with my friend that works there.

greg donovan wrote:My 01 alternator died at 154,000. Interestingly it died almost exactly 1 year after my ss alternator died. Both times were at the dealership when I was visiting with my friend that works there.

Sabotage? Just kidding

usually once about 170k you are pushing the limits...on a Soob alternator..

Binford wrote:

greg donovan wrote:My 01 alternator died at 154,000. Interestingly it died almost exactly 1 year after my ss alternator died. Both times were at the dealership when I was visiting with my friend that works there.

Sabotage? Just kidding

Let's just say I will not be driving there the second week of June next year.

Mine lasted 170K KM, since 1994