The Ford dealership in S Florida is off there fucking rocker I'm sure.

My room mate (female is broken down right now)  Took it to ford which looked at the car for an hour when all she wanted was an altenator and they told her 700.00!

03 Ford focus SOHC

We just moved to Tamarac FL so I don't know anyone and I don't have transportation until Friday when my bike gets here.  hinking.gif

Fuck maybe someone in the florida forum knows of a good place.

Anyone in the area want to fix it? We'll buy the part and supply Beer, Pizza, and Ammo!

Any non-dealer autoparts store and a 6 year old with a 9/16 wrench.

Quoted: Why not buy one from an auto parts store instead of the stealership?

+1, yeah I would figure $100-$150 tops.  And they're easy to do, I'm sure you could find a step by step procedure on google.  

I am car stupid!  I work on computers and those are easy.  I checked out google and it says you have to remove motor mounts to get to it.  

Sounds difficult since I'm pretty sure only a few of them hold the motor in.

I recently had to replace the fuel pump in my wife's '03 Suburban.

$500 for the fricken unit! I went to Autozone, same damn price.

It's a conspiracy.

alternator, focus, 2.0l, sohc   00-04   $334.47 w/o Core $250.85 w/ core

[ Here ]

They probably meant with installation.

I just priced on Advance Auto parts for anywhere between $145 for a re-man to $420 for a Motorcraft.  

Probably only a 20 minute job tops

ETA  Link

Here ya go. Easy to do.


ALTERNATOR AT AUTO ZONE


ETA: Advance will meet or beat Zone's price.

Brand new OEM Motorcraft alternator (GL455) is $283.42 with a $75 core, and a Motorcraft reman (GLV8455RM) is $178.18 with a $60 core.

Buy cheap Autozone shit at your own peril. Somebody else will have to quote you book time on the labor, since I don't have that stuff in front of me.

Quoted: We found a place that will do it for 300 with the price of an alternator! I'm also going to buy a book on this car so maybe I can do some of these repairs from now on.

I wonder what kind of piece of shit alternator they're putting on there for that price.

Though, I suppose there's a case to be made with regard to the quality of the OEM Ford part. It did die in less than 7 years.

When I replaced the timing belt and water pump on my wife's Neon, I made sure to purchase honest to God Mopar parts. Why? Because neither were bad, but they miraculously made it 160,000 miles (no shit - I bought the car with ~15,000 miles on it). I figured I was on borrowed time, and being that they're a BITCH to replace and they're obviously made extremely well, I'd do well not to tempt fate with cheap Autozone shit.

I replaced a Kragen alternator (under warranty) on a 1985 Toyota van 5 times in less than a year. I got so good at it, I could replace it in 20 minutes. Most (though not all) of the national parts houses buy parts from the lowest bidder. When people call around for parts, all they want to know is the price. They'll buy the cheapest one. They figure "parts is parts", and nothing could be further from the truth. You really do get what you pay for.

I will say that if you're not buying authentic OEM parts, Napa has served me very well. They're always a little more than Autozone et all, but it's not by that much and you're getting good parts. In my area, Napa does almost all of it's business with professionals. Consumers simply call around looking for the best price (even it's only $5 or $10), and Napa is almost never it. You know what though? At my Napa, the people working behind the counter actually know their shit, and it's a pleasure to shop there. It's worth every penny not having to deal with monkeys. I'm just about the only non-professional that shops there, and they've told me so. They generally don't like dealing with the general public, but they make an exception for me.

Maybe they're not all like that, but my local Napa kicks maximum ass.

Some alternators are "buried" in the engine compartment.  My Jetta required dropping the AC compressor...not swinging it out of the way but DROPPING IT.  Dammit, I dropped it on my jaw and busted my chin open...fuck that hurt.

It was easily a 2 hour job with the proper tools.  So yeah, I can see $700 for an alternator swap.

Quoted: Buy cheap Autozone shit at your own peril. .

What he said.


Of course if you don't mind replacing it 3 or 4 times....buy a cheap one. They cover the part under warranty....it's the labor that sucks.

Quoted: Quoted: Buy cheap Autozone shit at your own peril. Somebody else will have to quote you book time on the labor, since I don't have that stuff in front of me. +1 Keep your receipt, you're gonna need it!

I have replaced so many parts from AutoZone that I just used my phone number.

I thank God that I can afford new vehicles for my company trucks now days. God I ca't begin to tell you how many fucking AutoZone starters I put on my 92 Chevy. I had about 250,000 miles on it and probably 6 or 7 starters. Lifetime warranty isn't worth shit if you are losing starters every 2 or 3 months.

Good site to check out if you don't mind waiting for parts to be delivered..www.rockauto.com

ACDelco (Reman.) - $184.79
Motorcraft GLV8455RM - 180.99
Motorcraft GL4555 - $210.79
Bosch - $210.89

I just did my wifes '03 SOHC focus.

You DON'T have to remove any motor mounts, all you need to do is remove the fan assembly which is just hooked on to the radiator and fiddle with it a bit and it comes out/goes back in easy.

Alternator was $129 at NAPA, took about 30 minutes once I figured out I needed to remove the fan assembly.