I'm having to replace my alternator about every 10 months. I carefully checked the one I just pulled out and there was no evidence of anything dripping on it, it was completely clean. Does anybody have any ideas on what I should check for?

 

Are you using brand new alternators? Or rebuilt ones? If they're rebuilt I'd find a new shop.

 

Yes they are rebuilt, new is pricy! I've bought many rebuilts in the past and they have lasted years, not months. I know it's a problem with the car's electrical, I just don't know what would take 10 months to wear down an alternator.

 

Do you have any aftermarket audio? I take it you are buying the "1 year warranty" alts, since you arent abusing a lifetime warranty? I'd say get a lifetime and abuse if if you just have to have a reman alt, because paying repeatedly for reman stuff sucks.

FWIW, I'm not a fan of alts from places like Autozone, O'reilly's etc.... I've worked at both, and used to be a store manager at Autozone, I can tell you the 1 year warranty will be new bearings, cleaned case and internals, and fixed what is broken. The lifetime will have new guts, granted I think they are a step below OE quality

My suggestion is to try to find out why your electrical system is so harsh on your alt, and in the meantime get a lifetime warranty Alt and abuse the hell out of the warranty if you are ok with reman quality...

 

I don't have an after market stereo but when I hi-jacked the CD changer signal, I added a line driver to boost the signal from my player before feeding the head unit. I know I'm exceeding the normal output of the Nak. system by doing this, could it be that the problem is that " I'm exceeding the recommended daily allowance of decibels?"