The numerous “tics” and “quirks” you find amusing about your ride–unreliable antenna reception, busted A/C vents, a rattling muffler–can be all fun and games until it gets to your engine. Once there, you know it’s a critical problem that needs addressing sooner rather than later.

A Tuff Stuff alternator, sporting the company’s glimmering trademark chrome plating.

Fortunately, Tuff Stuff Performance Accessories has assembled its best and brightest to draw up a Frequently Asked Questions section of their website that you can check out anytime, anywhere. The company’s major product lines, which revolve around engine accessories including alternators, power steering pumps, water pumps, brake boosters, and starters, are all neatly laid out and addressed for the average Joe to read and understand at his leisure.

Look inside the Starter FAQs, for example, and Tuff Stuff’s knowledgeable staff can explain why your starter makes a whining or grinding noise. In this case, the suggested solution is to shim the starter–if the ring gear tolerance is too close, the starter needs to be shimmed so that the bendix gear and ring gear have adequate room to engage without creating too much wear and tear. Alternatively, it could be time to look at the flywheel/flex plate and determine for yourself if it needs replacing.

We installed a Tuff Stuff alternator into a GMC Sprint that we had in the shop last year. View that article here.

In the Alternator FAQs, you’ll find good bits of information and mythbusting to discover. One-wire alternators, for instance, continue to suffer from a bad reputation over poor output when at idle, which could cause considerable damage to the battery and electrical system if the engine wasn’t kept at a sufficient RPM.

Tuff Stuff dismisses this notion as false, as the company has been able to produce alternators that charge at low RPM thanks to built-in components. Even applications that use underdrive pulley systems are compatible.

So check out for yourself a few of these FAQs and find out if you’ve had the right idea all these years, or been the victim of engine accessory misinformation. Or give them a call with the phone number provided below.