That $40 alternator from eBay nearly killed my Civic

I grabbed a rebuilt alternator off eBay for 40 bucks thinking I scored a deal on my 98 Civic. Bolted it up in the AutoZone parking lot on a Sunday and it lasted exactly three days before the bearings started screaming like a dying cat. Had to push the car off the highway in Austin traffic and ended up paying $120 for a real one from O'Reillys. Has anyone else tried the cheap rebuilds and just gotten burned?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_harris7d agoOG Member

Read somewhere that 9 out of 10 cheap rebuilds blow up within a month. My buddy bought a $30 starter for his F150 and it caught fire on the third crank.

thea1436d ago

Wait, third crank and it caught fire? That's not blowing up, that's just graduating from starter to campfire real quick. I bet his buddy saved like 15 bucks on that deal though, so that's a win right? Honestly at that price you're not buying a starter, you're buying a smoke machine with a side of hope. But hey, on the bright side, at least he doesn't have to worry about it blowing up again since it already took the express lane to the scrap pile.