Alternator? Did I get ripped off?

[fred]

After I replaced a battery recently it started stalling at idle with the Heater / AC on. It was not doing it before that. When bringing it to the auto shop, they saw the the voltage dropping to 7.5 volts & the the alternator was so hot they turned it off & replaced the alternator.

The car kept stalling at idle, & after checking further they reset / cleaned the IAC controller valve & the car stopped stalling.

I had asked for the alternator back so I could have it tested independently & they said they had returned it to get the core fee back.

I have a feeling being that I had the same stalling after the alternator was put in that it never was the alternator especially being that they would not give me the old alternator-when it was still in the shop.

Would the IAC valve ever cause an alternator to run hot or is it possible they were being honest. Any advise? Thank you for any advise!

[karlk]

Yes, after replacing an alternator, they would have to return it for a core. If they were to give it to you, they would have to charge you the cost of the core.

No, a bad IAC valve will not cause an alternator to get hot.

A bad alternator would cause the battery to go bad, obviously.

The gray area is that if the idle were so low because of a bad / dirty IAC valve, this may cause the alternator to not output enough voltage since it was also running slow- like the engine was running slow.

[fred]

TY for the answer, I am guessing it was just a coincidence that the IAV valve & the alternator had a problem at the same time. BTW the alternator was not just getting hot it was also going up to 15-16v on & down to 7v before the alternator was replaced. But it works well no with no stalling so I guess I should be happy, TY for the answer !