So today my car was slow to turn over when I went to work and around 1230 I turned it off to fill up and it wouldnt turn back over. It tried once then went straight to click-click-click mode. Got jumped, took it to autozone where they hooked up the tester, told me the alternator was puttin out one volt, where it should be twelve. I was hoping it was the battery but looks like its the alternator. Car has 130k miles on, not trying to put too much more money into it, so is it possible to change the alternator myself?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a non-dealer to take it to if doing it myself isnt an option. Also, the car is on its second battery, I've been the owner since 2005/15k miles.

 

I don't see why you can't swap out the alternator yourself if you are familiar with working on your car. A buddy of mine swapped my alternator for a polished one. Its not that hard to do.

 

definitely not hard to do

 

That is awesome news. I am not that savvy but I have a friend who is, he is coming to look at it right now and see if he thinks we can do it. Thanks a million for the replies, I'll start calling around for the best deal I can find on one.

If anyone has any tips/tricks on the job or leads on good deals on alternators, I'd appreciate it.

 

It's on the bottom. There, now you know where it is.

 

haha thanks, but I'd already figured that out several years ago.

 

its easy to do.. but you have to remove the upper radiator hose and take out the fans which is only 2 bolts and unplug the wires to the fan

 

^after you do that just undo the alternator drive belt, unplug the alternator, unbolt the alternator...then install new one in opposite order

 

Thanks for the tip. I don't have to remove the bumper to do that do I? As far as I can tell I only need to remove the bottom engine cover.....

 

no you don't have to remove the front bumper.. only the bottom cover

take off the radiator hose then at the top of the fan there is 2 10mm bolts unclip the wire plugs and fans should come right out

then you have easy access to loosen the pulley belt and alternator

 

Just trying to help where I can.

 

Hard to believe that you need to change your alternator.

 

I've changed it when I thought my belt issue noises were coming from the alternator. Takes a few hours to do and the FSM explains it pretty well. It's definitely not that hard to do!

 

Yeah after further research I am considering other possibilities. Got it tested twice, told the alternator was fine and teh the battery was good but low on charge.....maybe I left something on last night? Gonna throw the jumper cables in the trunk tomorrow just in case.

 

Let us know if you need help, then we can talk law too