Alternator Options

[PSUEng]

Waking up to say it's my turn. Thanks for the RockAuto link, seems the way to go. Question - what else to do while in there? Pulleys and belts?

When I did mine I also did both belts, both tensioners, idler pulley, fan and fan clutch along with new bolts for everything. Looking back on it, I should have also done the oil filter housing gasket and associated sensor (I can’t remember if it’s temp or pressure) since the alternator was out. I also bought my Valeo alternator from Rockauto, best price I found at the time.

[Will ZCPM3]

My Valeo alternator started flashing the red battery light this past week. The alternator was original to the car, 2005 with 90k+ miles on it. I replaced with the Rockauto Valeo alternator, it was a bear not completely removing the fan and shrouds. If you're doing a cooling system refresh I would just go ahead and replace the alternator b/c it would be way easier with all that out.

That being said, it's doable to do it without removing the oil lines, fan/clutch, shrouds, etc. My pulleys and belts are all pretty new, so I didn't need to replace them. The worst part is the shroud on the side that goes around the coolant line. Not sure why that doesn't have a slot to just completely remove it. It seems like the new alternator has solved some issues I was having, cold start oem xenons flickering has stopped.

[bigjae46]

My Valeo alternator started flashing the red battery light this past week. The alternator was original to the car, 2005 with 90k+ miles on it. I replaced with the Rockauto Valeo alternator, it was a bear not completely removing the fan and shrouds. If you're doing a cooling system refresh I would just go ahead and replace the alternator b/c it would be way easier with all that out.

That being said, it's doable to do it without removing the oil lines, fan/clutch, shrouds, etc. My pulleys and belts are all pretty new, so I didn't need to replace them. The worst part is the shroud on the side that goes around the coolant line. Not sure why that doesn't have a slot to just completely remove it. It seems like the new alternator has solved some issues I was having, cold start oem xenons flickering has stopped.

Still have the old one? Pull the regulator and post of a pic of the brushes if you don't mind.

[Will ZCPM3]

Still have the old one? Pull the regulator and post of a pic of the brushes if you don't mind.

[elbert]

My alternator looked similar when it was replaced -- the brushes looked decent, but the commutator had severely worn down grooves.

[bigjae46]

Thanks! The brushes don't look too bad!

[sapote]

it was a bear not completely removing the fan and shrouds.

It seems like the new alternator has solved some issues I was having, cold start oem xenons flickering has stopped.

Pop off the fan shrouds is not hard -- just a few plastic expanded pins, and leave the piece goes thru the upper hose on the car. The secrete is to slide the "slide nut" at the rear of the alt rearward by couple millimeters to free up the alt. Using the same or shorter bolt and a socket as spacer, to pull the slide nut rearward.

The old regulator brushes still have a lot of life, so something else is bad, probably the electronic regulator itself failed, which is rarely happened.