First ever alternator replacement today

[katapaltes]

Thought I'd share my experience replacing the alternator for the first time in the 23 years I've owned my Protege5. It died on me in 21F weather five miles from home on a six-lane road. It took a couple jump starts/charges to get it home and it died for a third time as I coasted into my parking spot.

I wanted to buy a new Denso, Mitsubishi, AC Delco, or other quality unit, but new name brand alternators don't seem to be available for our cars. So, I bought a remanufactured Denso unit from Rock Auto as I trust that brand. The part was shipped from Ohio to Texas in just two days via FedEx. The unit didn't look great and there was a little sand/media from the cleaning process in the box. Things got worse when my buddy and I couldn't figure out how to remove the alternator from the engine bay using advice I'd found here and elsewhere online. We then noticed that the two holes for the pivot on the new unit did not even line up and there was no threading in the receiving pivot "ear" of the part. We gave up and reinstalled the old alternator that was still trapped in the engine bay. Later, I looked at a picture of the alternator at Rock Auto and saw that the reassembler had put the two "halves" of the unit back together 180 degrees off. I read online that Denso units are remanufactured in California, but I don't know for sure.

I sent the part back and ordered a remanufactured Pure Energy unit from Rock Auto. That part arrived in two days via UPS, perhaps from the Houston area. It looked brand new down to the wiring inside and as an additional bonus, it wasn't put together wrong. This unit was remanufactured in Mexico. This time, we followed advice on this forum, plus made sure to loosen every single bolt/nut I could find for the two power steering hoses, including three fasteners deep down in the engine bay around the steering rack. That, and following @i12drivemyMP5 's advice from 2008 carried the day. With me below simply supporting the weight and my buddy above pullling it out, the alternator was up and out of the engine bay in less than three minutes after being unbolted.

You have the [cruise control] out of the way. You removed the black canister from the firewall. Now remove the adjustment bracket on top of the alt from the motor. 1 bolt. Now it's just a matter of spinning, flipping & forcing it past the pwr steering & AC hoses to get it out. Be ready with the new one so when you actually do it you can reverse mode the new one back in the same way. It sucks but it'll come out. You have to take it way back against the firewall whilst spinning & flipping it to get the mounting ears past the hoses/lines. Be patient, you'll get it. Take it behind the rack & pinion line, back towards the firewall & up between the AC lines, firewall & backside of intake manifold. Basically it comes out right where that black canister was on the firewall. It's tight but it'll go.

 

[misnblu]

Good post as I'll be swapping out my alternator soon.
Thanks

 

[Saudade]

And? Did you finish? Did it work? Come on now. Don't leave us hanging!

 

[katapaltes]

Ha... Sorry, I should have given the deets - and one other fun item.

The new unit went in easily and once we buttoned everything back up (thanks to taking pictures of my holding every single freaking fastener/clamp/etc next to its original location), I fired up the car and the battery light in the dash did NOT turn on after the usual five seconds which indicated initial success! We went for a drive for a delicious burger and piping hot french fries after that but ended up at Whataburger instead - ba-dump-tiss...

Side note: Before removing all PS/AC fasteners (including PS fasteners way down below and even the fasteners holding the two PS lines together) I thought about taking the alternator apart inside the engine bay to ease removal. The idea would have been to remove the nut securing the pulley which because the pulley is so close to the fender would have required a special wrench (e.g. Capri Tools 0 Degree Offset Extra Long Box End Wrench, Metric (22 x 24 mm), CP11800-2224) and then after dislodging the unit while still in the bay, removal of four outer bolts from the alternator casing, praying that the unit could then be separated in two by hand. I'm not even sure this would work as the alternator belt and engine may not have offered enough resistance to keep the pulley from spinning, but at that point I was desperate given how difficult it was initially to remove the unit from the engine bay. Now that I know the process (above) to remove the unit, I would not consider taking it apart in situ, but I mention it for fun.

When returning the Denso part, I did mention to Rock Auto that it was put together wrong. I hope they inspect all their units as I'd hate for anyone else to receive one like mine. Note that both the Pure Energy and Denso remans have a heart symbol (customer favorite) next to them and the Pure Energy part is even slightly more expensive than the Denso, so that made me comfortable with ordering a brand I'd never heard of.