Driving home from work today, noticed smoke coming from the hood and a hellish burnt electrical smell. Pulled over and popped the hood and the alternator was smoldering. I was able to turn on my hazards, but after a few mins I noticed they were dead.

Got the car home on a tow-truck. No power to anything - lights, doors, etc. The battery was still a little warm 2 hours after this. I disconnected the battery and tried reconnecting it, but nothing. I suppose I'll have to check the battery to make sure it's still good tomorrow, but I'm worried that some of the electronics may have been toasted. Any ideas on where to look after the battery?

 

Your alternator probably hasn't been charging for awhile, just dependends on how much you drive your car. But you've probably been running off the battery for a few days, so Your battery is probably stone dead.
I just had to replace the original alternator on my Honda Civic a couple weeks ago, and we accidently drove the car several days on the battery alone. The alternator light never came on once, but driving home one day I notice the gauges stopped working, then came back on, then went off again. I made it home and shut the car off. When I tried to start it up it just clicked.
I have a pretty good battery charger, and I had to leave it on for about 12 hours before the battery was charged up again. The Civic has 190k miles on it. A "new" (not rebuilt) alternator was about $145.00 at NAPA.
How many miles on your Crossfire?

 

I'm hoping that's all it is! Yeah, I'll test the battery and charge, if necessary to see if I can at least get the lights to come on. Car only has 30K on it.

 

It is not uncommon for a battery to internally short causing the alternator to put out max amps trying to recharge the battery. This causes the alt to overheat the burn up. Hopefully not, but you may be replacing both items.

James

 

Taking a storage battery down to ZERO is often it's death knell. You may have issues with that battery now, if it wasn't the original cause of the failure.

I'd be willing to bet that a new alternator and battery will be all that is required. Unless the alternator's regulator failed and zapped the battery and system with 25 or more volts, I don't suspect anything else was damaged.

 

I just had to replace my alternator as well. I ran on the battery alone for a few days, actually. The car completely died and the battery wouldn't take a jump but I brought it to an auto parts store who charged it and it worked fine. Replaced the alternator ($250 for Bosch re manufactured part or $60 for a used one from a junk yard, I went with the used one) and haven't had any issues keeping the same battery.

 

Just keep all this in mind if your spoiler gets a mind of it's own or other weird stuff starts to happen.

 

Thanks for all of the replies! I did notice that I heard a louder than normal whine coming from the engine bay yesterday on my way home from work. I thought it may have been low power steering fluid and was going to take a look when I got home. Unfortunately I work in IT, so had to be on calls in India all night. I also have all day and all night meets today. I should get a chance to look at it tomorrow night and update the thread with my findings.

 

Okay, I played hooky from work tonight so that I could run my battery down to Autozone and have them test it. It was completely discharged. They recharged it, ran a test and all came out good. When I hooked the battery back up, I'm getting lights and all. But there was a sizzling arc sound coming from the alternator, so I disconnected the battery. Looks like I will be replacing the alternator this weekend.

 

You catch on fast.

 

It's amazing what a college edumacation can do for you... hahahah...

 

From the looks of it, replacing the alternator is going to be a PITA.

 

No, not at all... just pull the engine and transmission and it's EASY from there....

 

Ahh yes... but age and wisdom tell you smoke and burnt smell = replace instead of try again..

And if you need a hand.. Pizza.. our top Mechanic does travel..

 

A few months back, there was a thread on here where a GIRL in San Diego I think replaced her alternator.
Don't shame us, Scott.

 

Damn.. My man card is on the line now!!! Hey she's here in Cali. Maybe I can fly her up to fix it for me! lol...

I just went through this two months ago with my '86 MR2. Wasn't to hard to dismantle. Getting it out of the engine bay though......

Yeah, I just hooked it back up to confirm that it was only the alternator that burned up. Well that and to lock the sucker up too. I can't seem to figure out how to lock the hatch manually. Battery died again, so I'll probably pick up another one this weekend to be on the safe side.

 

Manual says it's easy-peasy Japanesy :

 

I hate to admit this, and I'll probably have to turn in my man card, but I did pay a shop to replace mine while I was at work.. charged for an hour of labor but I don't think it took more than 30 minutes.. unfortunately I had to have it done while I was also at work so I didn't get to attempt it myself.. shame shame, I know

On the bright side, it took a professional no time at all so if you have some basic skills and an hour set aside you can probably figure it out yourself.. there are a ton of instructions and pictures on this site

 

I changed mine using a brand new Remy item from Rock Auto for $200.

Hard decision because it is from China (I usually run from that stuff), but the visual quality of the parts it is made from (housing casting etcc...) was not bad at all & it has been running without noise or issues.

 

Replaced mine on the N/A not long ago with this Ebay one... Same one as shown in the images with the right pulley and looked to be new, not re-manufactured. But who can tell. Perfect fit and finish, free ship and one year warranty for $137. I even bought a second one as a backup for the SRT.

NEW Alternator Chrysler Crossfire Alternator V6 3 2 04 05 06 07 08 13884 | eBay