Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob C
My take on the statement is if say your battery is dead and you jump start it and
let the alternator charge it back up this is hard on the alternator.
|
This is the correct take. The quote at the top is best understood in the context of charging a completely dead battery. This is a not-uncommon situation in modern cars: battery is dead, somebody gives you a jump start, you go on with your life, relying on the alternator to bring the battery from 0-100%. As the argument goes, this purportedly causes the alternator to overheat, because modern alternators can put out much higher amperage than those of decades past. With higher amperage comes higher heat that the alternator has to dissipate. If it can't dissipate it (for example if you're idling the car to charge the battery), the alternator can overheat and be damaged or die.
I don't have direct experience of how widespread this is, but it is something that alternator repair shops often say.
https://ademaelectric.com/troubleshooting-alternators