They sell alternators that they claim are remanufactured. Either they are remanufactured in the sloppiest manner possible or they are just cleaned up old alternators with some random parts that they think could be bad swapped out.
I bought one of these supposed "remanufactured" alt's 18 months and 15k miles ago. From day 1 it would sorta flash the lights. More so at idle, but it was perceptible at even highway speeds. Now I would guess it is a bad diode in the rectifier part of the circuit.
18 months and 15k later, it is dead. I pulled the old alternator that ran 160k and died and found its brushes were worn out. I replace those and put it back, and no more flashy lights.
Just a heads up. BTW the original Bosch alternator usually never loses anything but the brushes. These are easy to pull and swap, and after the first time, if you install allen or hex head bolts holding it on, you can do it with the alternator still in the car. 2 minutes out, 2 mins in.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Thanks For the Warning!! But I've never had good exsperance with cheep rebuilt alt , unless they have a warranty. So I try to buy new ones if I can.

 

That was the basic deception IMHO. Rebuilt is where you take a core and test and replace what is bad, check it and send it out. Remanufactured = all the innards are replaced. TBH, the coil was nice and clear and shiny and honey colored. The problem was a diode. That possibly means - they replaced the brushes, the coil, and never checked the rectifier. The lights were flashing from day 1. It made voltage but a bad diode will create a ripple in the voltage, making the brushes work harder and hurt the electronics in the car.
It could have been better done and for cheaper if they picked up a stock one, checked the components and replaced what was bad. Like my 160K used alt still had honey colored coils, a bad brush set and possibly nothing else. They could have tested these components and put in new and it would fare better.

Cool.
Srinath.