Hi everyone,
Purchased an 01 Millenia back in July off of a friend. He told me that the alternator was going to need replaced. I bought the car anyways, went to the junkyard, purchased a grade A used alternator, and installed it in my Millenia with the help of my boyfriend. About 2 days after replacing the alternator I went to the store. When i came back out to my car it would not start; car was clicking as it tried to turn over. It ran fine the whole way there with no problems and no battery light on. Boyfriend showed up with cables, jumped my car, and it started right up! We thought maybe the starter was going bad, so I replaced that. Still had the same problem with the battery randomly dying. So I bought a brand new battery. Guess what! That wasn't the problem, either. I now have to monitor how much battery power I'm using and put my car on a battery charger for an hour or so once every 2-3 days to prevent it from just dying on me again. If I don't charge the car every few days it will eventually die. If I use a lot of battery power (headlights, wipers, heat, etc) the car will die even quicker. It gets weirder. After my car died the first time, it must have blown the fuse behind my radio, because the radio won't turn on. And if my battery light comes on, as soon as I turn off whatever i might have on that would be using battery power, the light goes back off and car runs fine. If I rev up my RPMs the battery light will turn back off, too. With winter coming, I desperately need to get this fixed. I can't use my defrosters or heat, it eats up my battery and the car will die within 20 minutes with it on. I've been told an open circuit/short/bad connection could be slowly draining my battery. Any thoughts?

I dropped my car off at a shop who specializes in electrical problems 2 days ago. They called me last night and insisted it was just a bad alternator. My engine does leak some oil, and they said that the oil ruined & rusted the alternator. I realize that could be possible, but I don't want to drop another $200 on an alternator only to find out that it's not the real problem...

Thanks in advance!

 

Buying a used alternator is a really bad idea. Your odds of getting a good one are 50% at best. Parts stores sell lifetime warranty alternators, it's the only way to go. Sounds like classic alternator failure to me.

 

Definitely a bad alternator. I'd recommend going with an OEM one if possible. Try taking a look here as it's OEM, and has a good warranty and guarantee.