2015 Mirage died on the road... (Solved: alternator!)

[Fummins]

I gotta work on not being so negative. But some days there's a This ordeal was a gong show from the get go. I was given the wrong location of the car numerous times so that didn't help things. I normally just track down the exact locations of stuff I have to pick up by using the gps program but the battery in the car was so low that the tracker powered down, even it's built in battery gave up the ghost so it was useless. It was basically a 30 min scavenger hunt for the Mirage in an oilfield industrial area. Good times.

Now I have to tape up the wiring harness. But at least I'll be able to toss a couple extra wraps of tape on it so give it an extra few days of life.

[7milesout]

I don't know where all the low mileage alternators got to. I found one on a core engine with 400k km that looked like it sat at the bottom of a lake for a while. But it works. It's now charging, no more battery light. I guess the Mirage alternators can fail after all.

See post #2 (a swig of beer, with a big ole post-beer-swig) aaahhhhh. Let me know if there's anything else I can learn ya...

[Fummins]

See post #2 (a swig of beer, with a big ole post-beer-swig) aaahhhhh. Let me know if there's anything else I can learn ya...

[Wallythacker]

The ones that are sharp don't drive. Nobody knows everything, and I never expect a lot out of anyone. Most of the problems I see are with people that say they used to be a mechanic, their dad is/was a mechanic, their husband is a mechanic etc...They're the ones that make up problems like the engine is too shaky and stuff like that.

The people who don't pretend to know everything seem to have the most common sense, or what I refer to as uncommon sense.

I looked back in my records for this car that I had to tow away yesterday, this is the same person that brought the same car in to get a new windshield installed and casually mentioned that the brake light was one. This is one of the ones that had no brake fluid...

My late Dad, rest his soul, only knew how to connect with women that should never be in a driver seat. My mother was famous for driving the car with ungodly fumes or smells noises coming any part of the car.

a couple of his girlfriends that I remember would show up at our house with their cars knocking like crazy due to lack of one essential fluid or another. No oil, antifreeze, brake fluid, power steering fluid, transmission fluid. sheesh

[Fummins]

I got a 2015 here that wouldn't start yesterday when I wasn't at work. Someone went to move the car out of the way at the end of the day and it fired up but they noted the battery light was on. So we figure they drove without a working alternator to the point where the battery died enough that it wouldn't start. Then after sitting a while had barely enough juice to fire up. I haven't looked at it yet.
This is the car that had the knocky 450k kms engine a while back that I replaced.

Edit: I haven't replaced the alternator on this car, belt is on it still. Talked to driver and they said battery light came on earlier in the day while driving, they didn't say a peep until the car didn't start when they were finished their lunch break. I tried to explain that they should tell a grown up but feel silly explaining stuff to someone that's been driving the same car for over 10 years and has had a license long before I was a thought.
RED light=bad(stop)
Orange light=not as bad(caution)

[7milesout]

The wrong oil you used in that car probably killed the alternator. You're T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I'm way worse. Just ask my wife (The Iron Dome).

[Mark]

I got a 2015 here that wouldn't start yesterday when I wasn't at work. Someone went to move the car out of the way at the end of the day and it fired up but they noted the battery light was on. So we figure they drove without a working alternator to the point where the battery died enough that it wouldn't start. Then after sitting a while had barely enough juice to fire up. I haven't looked at it yet.
This is the car that had the knocky 450k kms engine a while back that I replaced.

Edit: I haven't replaced the alternator on this car, belt is on it still. Talked to driver and they said battery light came on earlier in the day while driving, they didn't say a peep until the car didn't start when they were finished their lunch break. I tried to explain that they should tell a grown up but feel silly explaining stuff to someone that's been driving the same car for over 10 years and has had a license long before I was a thought.
RED light=bad(stop)
Orange light=not as bad(caution)

You may have shared this at some point, but I don't remember everything.

Auto Zone & O'Reilly wants approximately $520 for a Mirage alternator.

Rock Auto has them for about $200 + shipping.

I would lean towards having one of our local guys rebuild mine, but I am not aware of the cost these days? We have a couple guys in town, & that's what they do (fix electric motors, generators, alternators, etc...). It cost about $100 to have one rebuilt for my tractor, but that was over 10 years ago.

Do you keep an alternator in stock or rebuild them? What are the costs there?

[Fummins]

I still have a bunch of used ones. I pulled one off an engine I had in the warehouse(I have pallets and crates full of used Mirage parts I salvaged from wrecks over the years). Seems to be working good now.
I looked one local, $490 retail for a reman one.

I'd consider going used over a reman one. At least the used one is less likely to have cheap questionable parts inside and even if it has 300k kms on the part it's likely gonna last another 150-200k kms til it fails. It'll take me 10-13 years to rack that much up on my turd.
I've seen some fairly high failure rates on certain rebuilt/reman parts.