How Much To Fix Alternator

If you are looking at how much to fix alternator for your truck, semi or bus, then you have come to the right place. Let’s start with some common factor that might affect alternator pricing.

Factors That Might Affect Alternator Price

We consolidate the most common factors and listed below for your reference. They include:

Year, make, model, and engine size. You’ll need to know the year, make, model and engine size to source or buy the right alternator. Take you time to shop online and ask offline.
AMP. Take note of the amp that your alternator use. While smaller alternators don’t generate as much electricity, it cost lower. But this isn’t the case always. Some truck alternator amp ranging from 65 to 100 amps and are more than enough to handle the basic function of your vehicle. So making sure you get the correct amp is important.
Alternator mounting style. Like all other things, alternator need to fit in perfectly, so you can’t choose any alternator off shelf thinking that it might fit or work.
Electrical connections. Alternators are complex. Check properly if they are 1 or 3 wire alternators.
OEM VS Aftermarket. Choosing OEM or Aftermarket parts to buy is a personal preference. OEM tend to be on the higher end.

The Role Of An Alternator In Modern Vehicles

As technology advances, more functions are added to vehicles. This quickly add up the amount of power consume.

The alternator draw power from your battery and it amplifies it to provide electricity to maintain its operation while the engine is running. It also needs to generate enough power to deliver back to the battery for charging purpose. This changes the current from AC to DC that your vehicle needs to operate. The output is regulated to prevent any damage from over charging or under charging.

Can I Still Drive With A Faulty Alternator?

It depends and here’s 2 scenarios to explain why. If the alternator is under-charging, meaning, not charging enough, driving to the repair shop which is a few block away should not be a problem.

On the other hand, if the alternator is over charging, it could damage electrical and computer modules, wiring, battery even for a 3 minutes drive.

When you detect an alternator problem, you top priority is to have it fixed immediately. If your truck or bus is unsafe to drive, play safe, call for towing service.

Which Truck Alternator Should I Buy?

First thing first, you should check the amp rating of your truck alternator. Buying different amp might cause damage to your vehicle. If the vehicle you are driving is an older version or model, you may only need 70 to 80 am alternator. For newer trucks, where there are lots of onboard accessories and electronics, you may need 120 to 160 amp alternator.