So I had alternator failure a month or so ago. I took off the junk one and found it to be the lifetime warranty one from Advance Auto Parts. I first had to argue with that guy because I did not have a reciept so I could not take it back. I said the part number reads lifetime warranty right? He says yes I said then give me my new alternator and honor your guarentee. Well they give me the new one and I asked to borrow the impact to swap my pulley and dust shield. They say no it will void the warranty. I said fine put it in the notes I void the warranty and let me do it they say no they will. Well after 20 minutes watching them break the dust shield and what not they take my pulley and get it on. Well I bolted it on and it was fine until two days ago. On my way home from work I hear this banging and clanging coming from under the hood sounded like a busted rocker. I get it in the garage start it up it came and went. I then pop the hood to some smoke and little bits of billet hit me in the face. The asshats had done something wrong the nut on the pulley was gone and now my belt, alternator, and pulley are chewed up. I tried to locate a place that would sell me just one pulley but they say I can only get it when I buy the whole set. Thats like 200 bucks. I have to call the regional manager tommorrow to see whats going on. Can I make them pay for the replacement pulley and belt due to there mess up?
Show me a set of steel underdrive pulleys designed for a high output amp for a fox body and I will go after them. These were the only set of underdrives I have ever seen for a dual purpose use.
Sorry to say, most places {especialy the big chain outfits!}will just give you the run-around on the warrentee, and just all BUT say "fuck you" on a labor or damage claim. ESPECIALLY if you cant produce a LEGIBLE reciept. I have had stores tell me" I cant warrentee this part because all thats stapled here is a blank piece of register tape.We dont know if thats OUR part or not" I hate stupid bastards like that! I miss REAL parts stores like the ones found on a different thread . SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDANT AUTO PARTS RETAILER! THE ONES WITH THE BURN OUT MARKS IN THEIR PARKING LOTS! R.R.
ummm, underdrive pullys....high output alternator....fox body, dammit, i must have clicked on a mustang board not the HAMB!
Hey that little car is a good car lots of power 28mpg on the highway. Its not the normal type of car on the board, but getting screwed by a retail chains half assed techs is what I am trying to get help on. Lets back away from the fact the injured vehicle is a Mustang, and focus on the fact they broke it.
Probably bought the cheapest part from the cheapest place in town,knowing full well its gonna be a piece of sh*t and gonna have to be changed out within a year or two.THEN,comes in here and whines about it! WTF???? No sympathy from me!
...and that's why I do my own shit whenever possible. Period. You let them break it. Sorry to be real, but ya asked. Now go bug other muskank owners. Olson
What ever money bags I bought what I had access to at the time of failure. As I was on the road thats what they had thats what I bought it was the most expensive they had with a lifetime warranty. Hows about you show me some pics of your Gucci alternator with the Giovanni cooling fan and pulley. I asked a question my underdrive got all sorts of tore up I was asking if they would replace what their techs had broken. I did not ask to hear you call my machine cheap shit ya dig so fuck off.
Thats crap. I work at autozone, and we dont require receipts for warranty, thats why we keep a file. We also don't care if you take the pulley and swap it, infact many alternators require it. You definently have a labor claim, seeing how they did the work. I dont understand why they would even do it, we purposely dont do any work we don't have to for that exact reason, we dont want to be held responsible it something blows up. If we swap pulleys we do it on the counter right infront of you, and the customer normally helps.
Also, another note. If they wouldnt have swapped the pulley the warranty would be voided anyway for using the improper equipment for the vehicle. The alts should be exactly how they were stock for it to be honored. Half assing it with the wrong pulley and on heat shield is stupid on their part.
I am really sorry you are having trouble with Advanced Auto. I do a lot of business with the one here and it is owned by a real good friend of mine. He won't do the work but he will loan me the use of the vice and what tools I need to do it myself. He says he is too lazy and doesn't want the responciblity if I screw it up. He sells good parts and never hassels if it were to go bad. He just replaces it and he uses my phone number to check to see when I bought it. Gumpa
That would depend on what your looking for. I love every type of auto if its fun. I have a 89 four popper I have been robbing parts off of. I also am a member of a Mustang club here in Iowa if your looking for something I can prolly find it. Unless its that damn cowl piece. Those bastards are the hardest thing to locate and the junkyard expects 50 bucks for a busted up one. I spent almost all summer trying to find one finally got one for 60 bucks.
I would have to be desparate to let those type stores even install a battery for me in my daily driver, and NEVER in my hotrods....
Well......lets see here. The point of the reciept is to prove that you bought it there. There is a customer history file in the computer and they should have been able to look it up and see that you bought it there. While they aren't supposed to exchange it without a receipt it's not really a big deal. The thing with the customer history file is that people sometimes take it advantage of it. Its really there for courtesy to the customer and not much more. I dont really see why they offered to put it on for you. Unless they where just being nice and trying to give you a hand they shoulda let you do it. Their job is to sell parts, not be a mechanic. I wouldn't have let them work on my car. Im not accusing you of anything here but patience and understanding go a long way for both employee and customer. Sucks that your stuff got messed up and I hope everything gets worked out for you without any problems. If your ever in Alton, IL and you need some parts, go to your favorite part store and ill hook you up.
Next time do it yourself then it will be done right. Remember at times you are your own warranty station. Dawg
Gucci alt?? WTF?? So basically.... 1. You had a junkyard alt, tried to pull a fast one on Autozone... 2. You went there, got a free (POS) alt..."youre the man" 3. You let them swap stuff over, apparently dont even check it yourself 4. It breaks...you cry...now you want MORE free stuff when you were essentially being dishonest in the first place. 360 degree karma homie. 5. Its a Muskrat...really now. 6. If you are so "ol skool" and broke, perhaps we dont need like 5 cars as our profile says, whattya think?
"ESPECIALLY if you cant produce a LEGIBLE reciept." Warning on that, too. I needed a reciept recently & was pretty proud of my wife because she keeps everything in its own file folder in a cabinet at our house. I dug out the receipt and...the thing had faded away almost like invisible ink. It's that thin, slick paper that uses a thermal printer like you get everywhere from the grocery store to Target to Home Depot.
late 80s, 90s Ford alternators suck anyway. thats why replacements come with a new tail. Fix the problem, not the symptom. Put the real pulleys back on. Put a GM or ChryCo alt in it. And who leaves the car running when they go to check under the hood for that noise? Thats asking for a billet sandwich.
I actually had a similar (kind of) problem with a tool here recently. I bought a makita electric die grinder (25000 rpm) from the local tool house. I paid about 30 bucks more than if I got it online but I wanted to support the locals. It has a one year warranty on it. After two months (I only used it a couple of times) the snout broke off. The whole front four inches, right at the internal drive coupler from the motor to the collet shaft. I didn't drop it or misuse it in any way. I was gasket-matching a head when the front snapped, just like that. I brought it back to the local store and they said that I have to take it to an authorized repair center and they can't do anything. There is one in town, they gave me directions. I go to the authorized repair center and the counter guy tells me that they probably won't repair it because it looks like it was misused, but he'll send it in anyway. I normally buy milwaukee, and I'm not buying any more makita if this doesn't work out. It just makes me mad that I bought a quality tool, paid a premium, and am given the run-around when I have a genuine problem.
The thing I don't get is what did they do wrong? If the pulley was crooked you should have noticed it. (I always give a new alt a couple spins to listen for any noise before I even put it on, got a bad new one once with bad bearings). Perhaps they put it on too tight, but if I had an expensive pulley I'd swap it myself, not trust some counter jockey. As for gaurantees, most places warranty it only to the original purchaser, so if you weren't in the computer or had a receipt yoy shouldn't have gotten a freebie. And the next time you hear a bunch of noise coming from under the hood, shut the engine down before you open the hood, that's a no brainer there.
Suck it up - you tried to stick it to Auto Zone and you let them do work on your alternator with a non stock pulley. This is why salavage yards offer no warranty on electrical items. Remember this 'cuz it's important- "Sometimes life is a swift kick in the stones."
And don't wait till you get all the way home to check it out either... We had a Mechanic fired at work a few years ago because he "didn't" tighten an aluminium rim properly and the guy had it fall off the vehicle, taking the rotor and fender with it. The owner said he heard noise from the front wheel but kept driving(!) on the highway for another 20 minutes and then on the road to his home for another 15 or so with the front end wobbling around before the wheel "suddenly" flew off. Thats pure stupidity. He wouldn't rest until the "sloppy mechanic" was fired for breaking his new Cherokee and "endangering his life". He was in a crazy rush to get his truck back so the mechanic didn't attempt to road test and retorque the wheels as he normally would...just torqued them to the max required setting and let the owner go home thinking it would be fine on this very new truck.
They just hire junkies and winos off the street. I'm not passing judgement here but it appears to me that you already stuck it to 'em on the alt. No reciept because you didn't buy it and the warentee probably wasn't transferable. But you're absolutely right on the warining, if someone already doesn't know then it is good to point out that you shouldn't trust the cash register guy to do repair work on your car. Actually you're right about the little car too. No they are not a HAMB type of vehicle but i see a lot of OT can you help me fix my driver out there. For a late model car they are a lot of fun to drive.
I LIKE THAT ANALOGY!!!!! I tried to say the same thing earlier with my Wal-Mart comment, but I guess he didn't get it..... Spoons
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