Alternator Repair at our Winter Haven shop

The battery has to start the car. The alternator has to keep it running and recharge the battery. We test each separately, then measure charging voltage with the engine running and the electrical load turned up. A car that starts fine but dies while driving is pointing at the alternator, not the battery.

Because they fake it convincingly. A glazed belt, a weak tensioner, a corroded cable end, or a bad engine ground will all drop charging voltage and produce the same dash light and dim headlights. Those are quick to check and much cheaper to fix, so they get ruled out before we quote an alternator.

Plan on the car stopping, and not at a convenient spot. Shut off the radio, air conditioning, and anything else you do not need, and drive straight to a shop or have it towed. Once the battery is drained the engine stops, and on most vehicles so does the power steering assist.

Sometimes, and sometimes not. A battery that has been deeply drained several times can be permanently weakened, but plenty of them test fine after a proper recharge. We test it and tell you what it shows instead of bundling one in automatically.

On most vehicles on the road today, a new or remanufactured unit is the practical repair, and it is what our warranty covers. If a pulley, belt, or connection turns out to be the real fault, that is what we fix. We will tell you exactly what we are quoting and why before anything comes apart.