# 2008 Toyota RAV4 - Wasn't the alternator?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/2008-toyota-rav4-wasnt-the-alternator/157790>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** toyota\
**Created:** [February 2, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2008-toyota-rav4-wasnt-the-alternator/157790 "2020-02-02T18:33:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RuthannCarlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@RuthannCarlson](https://community.cartalk.com/u/RuthannCarlson)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2008-toyota-rav4-wasnt-the-alternator/157790/1 "2020-02-02T18:33:23Z")

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Vehicle was not purring as usual, sounding more like a low rough growl. Alternator was changed, repair people said they thought was fine, twice. Now is skipping and they think it has a head-gasket leak. (Would that make it “growl” for a while first??) Am thinking more transmission…???

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**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2008-toyota-rav4-wasnt-the-alternator/157790/2 "2020-02-02T22:41:38Z")

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> [@RuthannCarlson](#):
>
> Now is skipping and they think it has a head-gasket leak. (Would that make it “growl” for a while first??) Am thinking more transmission…???

I respectfully suggest that you find new repair people.  
A “rough low growl” can be the result of many conditions, ranging from something as simple as an exhaust problem to… God only knows. However, a transmission problem is not likely to produce a “low rough growl”.

> [@RuthannCarlson](#):
>
> Now is skipping

Can you give us a more complete explanation of what that means?