Have I angered the god of alternating current, or is it some fiendish plot, or am I becoming paranoid? In the past 12 months, the alternator has failed on my race car (the mighty BBX-Acorn Pub Escort Mk1), not once, but twice! Now I can sort of understand that by saying standard alternators probably are not made to withstand constant 7,000 RPM – however, the tale of woe does not end there.
As well as the race car, my daily driver, the much maligned Daihatsu Mira’s alternator also threw in the towel. OK, it is 15 years old, so maybe it is allowed to fail, but that brought it up to three alternators in one family.
Alternator.
But it didn’t end there. Last week my wife reported that the family Fortuner would not start, and since the battery was over two years old, she had ordered a new one from the local battery shop, and it was installed and the SUV was now running again. End of story? No, because the next day the Fortuner would not start, despite its new battery. Down to the friendly chaps at B-Quik, and guess what? The alternator had given up, and this one was only six years old. And as an additional problem, this was Songkran, so the alternator supply shops were closed. As I write this the B-Quik boys are now trying to find one in Bangkok! And that makes it four alternators in one family!
I have found from prior experience that batteries do not last long in this country, and around two years seems to be it, but until recently I had not put alternators in the auto consumables basket. Have I just had some bad luck, or is this a more common problem than I imagined? I would be interested to hear your experiences.
