Meet Big Red 2000 Tundra SR5

Hello to all

I drove big Red Cross country when I first bought this truck in 2018. We made the 10,000 mile trek with only one misfire and two breakdowns fast forward 100,000 miles later…
I just put an alternator in three months ago with the help of my son and this forum. So thank you.
Now three months later it’s failing again! I also think the power steering pump is going bad? I did have to shimmy it a little when I replaced the alternator so I’m sure I broke more than I fixed.

Anyway. I’ll be taking it out and bring it back to Orielly to take advantage of the 2 year warranty. I just don’t want to do the labor again. It was my first alternator and it took me and my 16 year old son 8 hours! Half of that was getting the rusty bolts off the skid plate. Anyways encouragement or helpful tips for this go round would be helpful. I will def replace the battery at the same time. they say it’s at 90% health but it’s already 3 years old and been through a lot. If you e made it this far I hope you have a nice day.

 

Welcome.

You might want to double check your suspension and/or what you're hauling. Your truck looks significantly overloaded in that picture.

Good luck.

 

Yes it was overloaded. That was 5 years ago on a 6 week long cross country trip. We drove 10,000 w all that gear. Only hauling dogs now.

 

Gotcha. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

On the suspected power steering issue, it may be the tensioner or Idler pulley. Food for thought.

 

Very good point , and certainly and easier starting place.

 

RuffIdle Haven't even asked, what makes you think the new alternator is going bad? And are there any symptoms of the PS going bad?

 

Thank you everybody I just finished putting in the new refurbished alternator from O’Reilly. Test drives went well. Going to take it to check it anyways to make sure this won’t happen again. I had a new belt put on and I also got a new battery. I did wonder if I overdid it on the tensioner or if the specs were correct when I was tightening, everything down. I guess I will see if this alternator lasts more than 2,000. Everyone says this just happens to remanufactured parts on old cars. It was just discouraging that it was my first alternator. Positive note it only took me 4 hours this time. It was definitely easier the second time around.

 

I don’t know how to reply to a comment yet but I’ll figure it out…

In regards to the power steering. It felt a little tight and it was drinking fluid faster than normal. Also, sound the alternator was making was more of a vibration/ rattle rather than the usual whine that I heard a bad alternator makes so I thought it was something else. I guess I was hoping it was something else since I had just replaced it 3 months ago.

The guy testing the alternator at advanced said the noise was a bearing in the alternator making the noise rather than the power steering like I thought. So I will have to wait and see if it’s still drinking fluid like crazy. I didn’t remove any hoses to take out the alternator I just moved the PS pump out of the way enough to squeeze the old one out and so forth.

now that the new one is in the battery and the alternator tested great and it’s driving great. No noise and no more low battery power. I’m pleased with myself but guarded about how long this one will last. Only time will tell.
Thanks to all again. I will certainly be doing more work on this truck so I’ll see ya around.