I have had my 91 Integra RS for almost a year. It has gonr through 4 alternators in this time. (Im about to install a fifth) My last alternator crapped out after only 2 days. The others have lasted a week to 5 months. What could be causing this? Eating alternators is an expensive habit.

 

Could it be a relay...

 

are you buying cheap refurbished ones? Do you have like an insane stereo system that sucks a lot of power? you shouldn't be going through alternators like this.

 

agreed if you have gauges or if you have been spilffing wires you are probably running too much juice through them.

 

One thing that will cause a teg to eat alternators, (although, two days is insane, that was definitely either a bad alternator or a wiring problem) is something I found out the hard way.

If you play around a lot under the hood or with the works around the drivers side wheel, you may have removed one of the plastic splash shields either under the car or in the drivers side wheel well. (I removed mine because it was broken .. thinking ..eh... I'll replace it when I get around to it).

Removing the one beneath the engine near the drivers side wheel well caused a great deal of water to splash up on the alternator if I hit puddles or I was driving during rain. This caused me to run through three alternators in a year before I found out what the problem was.

Just a thought.

 

Also check your battery. An older or pour condition battery will lose it charge at rest faster which means that every morning you start your car with just barely enough juice and then your alternater has to work hard to charge it. An alternator is designed to keep a fully charged battery charged up, they are not designed to recharge a dead battery. One of the fastest ways to kill an alternator is using it to charge your dead battery when you left the lights on or something.

Good Luck