Originally Posted by JayGS4

UPDATE: I've gone through 2 pepboys alternators. One of which my mechanic installed for me but as mentioned I still had the accessories shut off on me. So long story short, Pepboys agreed to install a new alternator free of charge. Everything went well on the second Pepboys alternator (performance wise- no NAV/radio shut off or battery light), but there was a loud whining/hissing noise at idle and when revving. Brought this issue up to the service & parts manager and mentioned these alternators seem to be defective as I've gone through two already.

Ended up buying an OEM Toyota re-manufactured unit from Sewell (to clarify, there was a sticker on the alternator mentioning OEM Remanufactured) for about $245 which came out cheaper than the Pepboys 'Prostart" alternator which I originally bought for $285. Pepboys swapped it out free of charge and refunded me. I have not had any issues since and everything works well.

I would have gone with the OEM part from the beginning but ordering from Sewell would take about a week when my local pepboys had them in stock. But in the future, I am only going the OEM route from now on. The rebuilt units at the auto parts stores are a hit or miss and a huge inconvenience.

Originally Posted by tiger4life

Meh.... my car was getting harder to start even though the battery was a few months old. I figured the original alt was going bad after 216k miles and 15 years. Got VSC ligths and sluggish performance this week and then the red battery light came on. Installed an Autozone alt ($124+tax) today and everything is back to normal. I have a gs300 so the job wasn't too bad. If I had a v8 I probably would've thought about the decision harder. Also Autozone is like a 1/4 mile from me so it was convenient.