Wanna be sure its the alternator?

[tmorales509]

Well my alternator is a little over 3 years old and im pretty sure it finally went out. I do have a sound system in my car(which i only have had for about 3 months). Anyway i started my car one morning and turned the radio up and less than a minute later my battery light on the dash came on. It has never came on before. So i checked the voltage and its not charging. Basically i know its the alternator but what i wanna know is, is there any relays or fuses that could have blown or would you guys say "just change the alternator"?

[mtcookson]

Alternator. They are incredibly weak on these cars for some reason (at least the replacements that are commonly used).

Relays rarely go out. Fuses are easy to check if you think there may be a fuse issue but like I mentioned above, our alternators are pretty weak so a replacement will fix the issue. There was actually one time I had to get 3 different alternators from AutoZone before I had a good one... the first two were bad in the box.

If you use one of their lifetime warranty replacements, have them test it before leaving the store.