...So I went to Autozone based on many posts here stating they now offered a quality product. About 15 years ago I'd purchased a parts-store alternator for my Dodge Challenger. It was dead on install and I had to R&R it again, though the part was "lifetime warranty." I didn't want to spend the ~$800 for the part at the MINI dealer, so I did the Autozone thing.

I had a bad feeling about this for some reason, and with the 100++ heat here in Vegas I opted to take the car to a shop. They swapped the alternators for me and the car still did the same thing. After a few days of troubleshooting they finally pinpointed the harmonic damper as the culprit. Got the car home and after a day, it quit charging.

Took it back to the shop where they pulled the "new" alternator out, took both the "new" and the original part to autozone and had them tested. The old was was perfectly fine (as we'd expected) and the autozone part was dead as a doormat.

Put the original part back in and I'm off. Got a refund for crap alternator, but it cost me ~$200 at the shop for the second R&R.

Moral of the story? don't trust that crappy Duralast lifetime warranty part. Another guy towed his pickup in to the same shop the next day with a freshly replaced alternator from Autozone. Same story.

Oh, and Check your harmonic damper before you throw any accessory parts at it, mine died with 59k miles... :/