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I have Denso reman in my Honda for 65k miles now and went with the same for our MB (Denso is the OE for both), no issues. If it goes bad in the GX I'll get the Denso from RockAuto again.
The Bell Lexus listing didn't mention anything about a core charge and I wasn't paying attention because the photo is a generic stock photo. I called Bell Lexus and they confirmed that their listing is for a new OEM Denso alternator, not a reman.
I went ahead and ordered one which was $394 shipped. Not sure why it was so much cheaper than Partsouq.
Unless you are planning to rebuild the alternator yourself it is somewhat pointless to get a second one. The rebuilt ones are rebuilt by Denso and are equivalent to a brand new alternator. This is how it looks like when you get one from RockAuto (not the GX one):
I talked to a shop that specializes in Toyota and Lexus only, and they said they've never seen an alternator fail on a J150.
Save your money.
Well here's your first then. My alternator failed at just over 159k due to a bad diode. I've got 3 zone climate control so it was the high amperage one.
The alternator is pretty challenging to change from what I've heard on our cars. The fact that a new OEM is still available was all I needed to hear, given what's involved. Sure, the reman Densos probably have a very low failure rate but I'm sure that a new OEM has an even lower failure rate. Since the GX is going to be apart for some other work, it just makes sense to me to do it right.
Not sure how many are still out there and the 2010-2013 150 amp alternator seems to have a different part number than 2014 and up. Plus, the price difference between a reman and a new one was only a few hundred dollars.
Should be here on Friday and I'll post a few pictures.