Dreaded alternator on my 01 going. Ordered remanufactured one today. How long do you have since my battery/brake lights came on today and my alternator is whining before my car dies? Getting it fixed in a few days....

 

you will have until you kill your battery, advise dont use it until you can replace it

 

Every case is different. Could be minutes, hours, or days...

I'd drive another car in the meantime.

 

Was told my alternator was bad four days ago. No lights on yet, but have driven for about 250 miles, and a total of about 4 hours between driving and idle. Full ac, sub and two amps and still going.

 

Consider yourself lucky. Once the brake/battery lights come on you are on borrowed time according to everything I've read. Not driving my car until Monday/Tuesday to get it installed. I've done all my repairs myself on this car for 10 years but tackling this alternator from everything I've read doesn't sound easy with bolts stripping and removing pulley ac compressor just doesn't seem fun.

 

Granted this was on my 7th gen, but still an alternator problem. My alternator just went out a few days ago. Pushed the gas after coming to a stop at an intersection....no go. I then got a tiny bit of power to pull over on the side where it stalled. Tried to jump it but the battery was gone too. I ended up getting towed to the dealer. My alternator was shot & so was my battery. Warranty covered the alternator & labor.

In my case I really had no warning. If I were you, I would try not to drive the car, that way you don't get stuck somewhere, & you don't kill your battery.

 

AC Compressor is 4 bolts, was super easy to get to come down enough to remove the alternator. The part that prevented me was the stripped nut on the idler pulley. If it wasn't for that, the job would probably take about an hour or so.

AC Compressor = 4 bolts
Alternator is = 2 bolts
I undid two bolts on what I believe was the oil cooler line to pull it out of the way, and just the connections to the alternator had to be undone.

 

OK so I am going to replace the alternator myself. I read through all the how to's and stickies. Can someone tell me the bolt sizes for the alternator and ac units? I know I need to buy a angled 14mm wrench for the tensioner but a have a full set of metric sockets for other jobs I have done on the car. Also put pb blaster or penetrating oil on some bolts should help. Thanks

 

i just did mine a week ago. You need a 12mm, 14mm for the Alt, 14mm for the AC Comp a 10mm to remove the black plastic under the car a 14mm for the pulley. The pulley adjust the opposite way, I can't remember the proper way to say it, other than that is a less than an hr job.

Follow this link for a visual help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijNmGtnkqM