Merry go F urself.

"OPPOsaurus WRX" (opposaurus)
12/01/2014 at 11:10 • Filed to: None

Well I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was great until the day after. MY Wife's Escape died. I'm 99.9% its the alternator. So i think to myself, whatever, I can do that in an hour tops. Well turns out that the V6 which is mounted sideways has the alternator in the back side against the fire wall. It requires dismantling part of the Sorry, I'm sick and frustrated. Front drive shaft and some other crap and its way too involved for my driveway repair abilities.

I've called a couple places and got back $500, $700, and $200. The last one is if I bring the part in myself. The guy says he really needs work and wants the job even if its a bit of work and that this is better than paying for an empty garage. Well I would love to help the guy while he would like to help me but i'm nervous about taking it there with this seeming too good to be true. any thoughts? Is it a nightmare waiting to happen or just a guy desperate to pay the bills?

DISCUSSION (12)

505Turbeaux > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 11:17

does it have a regulator/brush set you can take out without pulling the alternator? I have done this in a few cars before

BoulderZ > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 11:18

Ugh. Transverse V6's are one of humanity's really bad ideas. For the shop, see if you can find some reviews, info, or references. There's a place I here I dealt with as both a customer and as a NAPA driver, and they would do deals like that to keep things moving, and they were okay. There was another place that was most definitely not okay. The difference was the first shop had been there for at least 20 years, whereas the other was in a gas station that constantly changed hands. Good luck to you, whatever you choose.

OPPOsaurus WRX > 505Turbeaux
12/01/2014 at 11:18

i kinda doubt it would work. with the location I dont think you'd get it out without a bit of wanting to kill yourself

OPPOsaurus WRX > BoulderZ
12/01/2014 at 11:22

yea i can;t find anything about this place. The place I brought my truck last year (different place/people) was out of business a couple months later.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 11:36

Alternators are an extremely common problem on that generation escape. Almost weekly I see one coming towards me with blinking headlights and I'm like "oh there goes another one!".

swansong, rockin' the wagons > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 11:48

Alternator died on my mother-in-law's AWD V6 Escape last week as well. They called around to the shops and got back numbers like $900. I couldn't believe it. The book time is apparently around 8 hours, involves dropping out driveshafts and suspension parts and all that crap. It's an unfortunate side effect of putting a relatively large transverse V6 in a compact FWD based engine bay.

OPPOsaurus WRX > swansong, rockin' the wagons
12/01/2014 at 11:52

damn thats a lot of money. yea bad design i guess, good in theory bad in practice

jariten1781 > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 11:57

I've had really good experiences with small time (think 3-5 employees in a corrugated metal shack) shops for relatively simple work on dailies. I wouldn't trust 'em for performance work or something that requires getting to the internals, but for an alternator it shouldn't be too difficult. Go check the place out and if the guys seems relatively competent I'd suggest giving it a go.

thebigbossyboss > swansong, rockin' the wagons
12/01/2014 at 12:17

sometimes though mechanics have work arounds. I remember my local mechanic who is pretty good usually said that the book told him to drop the engine out of my ford tempo to replace the harmonic balancer. I went to Canadian tire (normally the last resort) and they said they could slip it in by just lowering the engine they had done it before on Tempo's. Ok. $400 later they were done.

thebigbossyboss > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/01/2014 at 13:47

I just came here to say I love the title of this post.

thebigbossyboss > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
12/01/2014 at 13:47

My headlights blinked but it was my socket that was fried. then again, it was not an escape.

OPPOsaurus WRX > thebigbossyboss
12/01/2014 at 14:01

thanks for the valuable input on the situation /end sarcasm..... thanks