I just finished replacing the alternator and starter, walnut blasting the intake valves, and changing the spark plugs on my 2015 CX-5 and I thought I’d share what I learned.
Disconnect the battery before doing any of this.
I used a factory reman alternator and a Bosch reman starter from RockAuto. They were both working fine, but at 105K miles I decided to replace them.
First off, spark plugs. The world is awash in fake NGK spark plugs. I bought NGK ILKAR7L11 (these are the OE plug) spark plugs off EBay. They looked totally real. The boxes, the plugs, everything. I drove the car a few miles and the CEL came on with a P0600 code which is a general CAN bus issue. I then learned of the fake NGK plugs scam. I bought a real set from O’reilly’s (authorized distributor) and installed those and no more code. It’s easy to test if they are real. They should have 5K ohms of resistance. Buy them at a brick and mortar store and bring your multimeter to check all of them before our leave. It’s that bad. The fake one’s resistance readings are all over the place. I couldn’t even get a reading from the fake plugs I took out.
Alternator replacement. I could not find a new one, so I recommend the factory reman unit. Lots of junk out there. Replace the belt and tensioner at the same time. My tensioner was oily and had clearly failed. The easy way to access the alternator and tensioner is to remove the intake and the passenger side engine mount. Removing the engine mount sounds scary, but it’s pretty easy. Put a jack under the oil pan with a piece of wood to distribute the load and jack it up enough to take the load off the engine mount and remove the 3 nuts and 3 bolts. All are easy to get to.
Look at the new alternator mounting lugs and you see a bushing holding a trapped nut. You need to tap the bushing back a bit to install it. I used an awl, but a socket and extension would work too. The bushing will be pulled into place when you tighten the bolt. The old alternator is a little difficult to remove because the bushings are pulled in tight. I used a slide hammer to get mine out, but you might be able to tap on the top bolt to back the bushing off.
Be sure to use a six pointed socket to remove the tensioner since that little nut likes to round off.
The starter is easy with the intake off. Just two accessible bolts. I wan’t planning on replacing it, but it was so easy while I was in there.
The factor intake gaskets are one use, so replace them.
Clean the throttle body while its off.
The normal running voltage for this car is 13.5 V. That’s lower than most cars, but it seems to be the norm here.
I walnut blasted my intake valves while the intake was off, but that’s a whole other post. I made a post on that somewhere.
Anyhow, I hope this helps the next guy….
Disconnect the battery before doing any of this.
I used a factory reman alternator and a Bosch reman starter from RockAuto. They were both working fine, but at 105K miles I decided to replace them.
First off, spark plugs. The world is awash in fake NGK spark plugs. I bought NGK ILKAR7L11 (these are the OE plug) spark plugs off EBay. They looked totally real. The boxes, the plugs, everything. I drove the car a few miles and the CEL came on with a P0600 code which is a general CAN bus issue. I then learned of the fake NGK plugs scam. I bought a real set from O’reilly’s (authorized distributor) and installed those and no more code. It’s easy to test if they are real. They should have 5K ohms of resistance. Buy them at a brick and mortar store and bring your multimeter to check all of them before our leave. It’s that bad. The fake one’s resistance readings are all over the place. I couldn’t even get a reading from the fake plugs I took out.
Alternator replacement. I could not find a new one, so I recommend the factory reman unit. Lots of junk out there. Replace the belt and tensioner at the same time. My tensioner was oily and had clearly failed. The easy way to access the alternator and tensioner is to remove the intake and the passenger side engine mount. Removing the engine mount sounds scary, but it’s pretty easy. Put a jack under the oil pan with a piece of wood to distribute the load and jack it up enough to take the load off the engine mount and remove the 3 nuts and 3 bolts. All are easy to get to.
Look at the new alternator mounting lugs and you see a bushing holding a trapped nut. You need to tap the bushing back a bit to install it. I used an awl, but a socket and extension would work too. The bushing will be pulled into place when you tighten the bolt. The old alternator is a little difficult to remove because the bushings are pulled in tight. I used a slide hammer to get mine out, but you might be able to tap on the top bolt to back the bushing off.
Be sure to use a six pointed socket to remove the tensioner since that little nut likes to round off.
The starter is easy with the intake off. Just two accessible bolts. I wan’t planning on replacing it, but it was so easy while I was in there.
The factor intake gaskets are one use, so replace them.
Clean the throttle body while its off.
The normal running voltage for this car is 13.5 V. That’s lower than most cars, but it seems to be the norm here.
I walnut blasted my intake valves while the intake was off, but that’s a whole other post. I made a post on that somewhere.
Anyhow, I hope this helps the next guy….
