As far as I know, my car has never had it replaced. But I have a suspicion that it may be going out soon.

This is 17 alternators out of 13 people who have voted so far.

I am still on my 1st alternator. What usually causes them to go out so often? Are they just made cheaply? Just wandering

My personal feeling is that it'* a combination of 2 factors:

1. Pontiacs and the 3800'* in general run high temps under the hood.

2. The Alternator design doesn't lend itself to a great rear bearing design. Aftermarket solutions like DP'* alts solve this problem. Time will tell. We've got about 5 of these alts running here on the club now.

Dealership put one on at their cost the day I bought it, and I have put a new one on ~35000 miles later.

I feel lucky that I had to replace my alternator just ONCE at about 65K. I bought mine thru a local rebuilder of alternators and starters. It seems to me that the reason that some remans fail faster than others is becuase some rebuilders ONLY replace the failed component. So they may replace a diode(or two) and not replace the bearing. So who or where you buy them from Does make a difference!

I think that the remanufactured alternators are generally poor quality, except AC Delco or a high quality rebuild like the others mentioned.

I haven't talked about all of the alternators my 89 went through.

So i just fofund out as i puled my old alt that it says "ACDelco Reman" do they remanufactuer alts for new cars? if not then im not on my first altrenator. Im getting a brand spanking new 140Amp lfetime warrenty alternator from KOI Autoparts (not reman.. WOHOOO).

I'm also on my original @100,000 miles. I don't think I have the same alternator as you guys though, mine is 140 amps stock.

Mine was 140 stock. I think all SSEi'* got them.