Here we go again!!!! You know in the past two months we have spent almost $1,500 on this truck. Replacing the alternator, timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, plug wires, and front cam seals. Well tonight we were sitting at the store with it idling and the Service engine soon light came on, we were only 1 mile from home so we came home and I didn't know what to do so I got out there with it idling and tested the voltage at the battery and it was reading about 14 then, I looked back in the truck and the battery and brake lights were on!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm thinking the alternator again but I'm wondering what ya'll think? I know autozone alternators are crap according to people on here, and I'm thinking it's true because this is the second alternator from autozone since January! Does this sound like the alternator again to ya'll?? Please help.

 

Go to autozone, get the car scanned and post the codes.

 

sounds like you have 2 problems. if the battery light and the brake light on the dash are on, you got an alternator issue. get the vehicle scanned for codes somewhere, more than likely its going to be an o2 sensor code. p0154 is a common one. but usually its going to be a sensor on bank 2. there is a reflash for the pcm depending on what year your montero is, and what code you have. sometimes if you reflash the pcm you dont even have to replace any sensors. the reflash recalibrated the parameters to set o2 sensor codes, but you have to take it to the dealership for this reflash

 

I put the volt meter on it and it stayed at 14 so I was happy with that, but confused as well, because I wasn't sure what else could be wrong with all that we done to it. When I killed it the brake and battery light went off, they never were on really bright and they haven't came back on. But anyway I took it to Autozone to get it scanned and the only code that came up was P303 misfire, maybe a vacuum leak. The guy said it may have been something as simple as the gas cap not being on tight and sealing good, which I had just gotten gas. He also asked when was the last time I ran injector cleaner through it and and I said never. So he said start with the small stuff like that so I he cleared the code and I put a bottle of Lucas Injector cleaner in it and made sure I put the gas cap on tight. I left and drove the 20 miles back home and no lights came on so I hope it was something simple like that!

 

Well the check engine light didn't come back on, but the brake and battery light came on last night when we stopped at a stop sign then when we took off they went off??? This is about to drive me crazy. I mean we don't want to drive the truck like nothings wrong and get stranded, but we don't want the nearly $1,500 we spent to go to waste! I don't know what to do short of carrying an extra alternator everywhere with us!

 

use ONLY Mitusbishi alternators.

all others are chinese remanufactured crap.

 

What's the best, reasonably priced place to get a Mitsubishi Alternator from? Dealer? I'm going to wait until after we get back from vacation to get it, but I'm definitely going to get one. If I have to exchange the Autozone one that's on there now before then it's fine. As long as they don't give crap again, last time I had to get the mechanic to tell them it was bad because every time they tested it, it came back PASS.

EDIT: I searched and found RCHill has one they say is OEM for $206 does that sound right? Has anyone bought one from them?

 

Not sure what year you have but www.mitsubishiparts.com has them between $197 and $220 depending on year.

Ron

 

I've heard good things about Denso super class alternators that exceed OEM specs if you don't go the exact OEM route. Maybe you can get Autozone to purchase one for you at wholesale cost because of all your trouble.

 

It's an 01 2wd with the 3.0. I made up a signature with all my info in it for my posts but it doesn't show up? Oh well, I decided since this is an intermittent problem I'm going to mount up a volt meter to keep an eye on what it's doing as far as charging and see what the gauge reading is when the lights come on if they come back on. I don't think I want to deal with autozone any more on this issue, besides exchanging this one if it goes out before our vacation.