Hi everyone. Have looked up how to change the alternator and everything so just want to confirm my thinking. Was driving home earlier and could here a whine that increased with rpm till it was drowned out by the engine. Pulled over and as best as i can tell was coming from the alternator. Continued to drive home, battery light came on, then about a minute later the other lights. Car then died outside my house so pushed her in the driveway.
I assume its the alternator, and looked everything up, just a couple of questions, does the power steering pulley absolutley have to come off, and roughly how much will i spend to get the alternator reconditioned or for a new one. Thanks in advance.

 

Anyone know?

 

Which GS do you have?

 

Sorry. 99 gs300.

 

Why would you take off the power steering pulley? It has nothing to do with the alternator, so no it does not have to come off. Here in the US we can get a reconditioned/remanufactured alternator for approx USD$200 and they all come with a lifetime warranty(yes, I said that right lifetime warranty!). Do not buy one new from the dealer as that can easily run into the $600-700+ range. Well, you can buy new if you feel like spending some extra money haha.

Steps to replace alternator:

Pre-check:
Disconnect battery negative terminal first before doing anything.
Tools needed:
- 12, 14mm socket
- Ratchet and breaker bar or just get a long steel pipe that can slip over the ratchet to give you extra leverage.
- Replacement accessory belt, might as well change it out while you're in there.
- Replacement alternator.

1. Get a 14mm socket and a breaker bar or some kind of ratchet or wrench teht can give you more leverage. Other option is to slip a long steel pipe onto a normal ratchet to give you the extra leverage. Put it on the tensioner pulley(the black colored pulley that's not connected to any accessory/pump in the middle of everything) and turn clockwise to relive tension on the accessory belt. This should give you enough slack in the belt so you can pull the belt off by hand.

2. Look at the alternator, it's on the bottom left corner of the engine. Disconnect the connector harness going to the alternator. Also there is a 12mm nut(under rubber boot) holding the charging terminal to the alternator. Remove both of those items.

3. There is one 14mm nut and a 14mm bolt holding it the alternator in. They are in front of the alternator. Once they are removed, you can wiggle the alternator out of there.

After that, reinstall everything in reverse order. I can do this job in about 20minutes. Any novice mechanic that is willing to do some basic work and has basic tools should be able to do this in about an hour at most.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

Thanks loads man. Have done a few alternators on different cars before, but when i read the pdf file on it they were sayin to remove the powersteering pulley, having looked at the engine and that myslef couldn't see why but thought i'd better ask before i go flying into it and make a ***** of it. Honestly thanks so much for getting back to me and man, your cars rock!

 

The instructions for a GS430 said to remove the pulley. I did not know if they were different for a 300?

 

Have the alternator out now and dropped it to a auto electrician who should have a recon exchange unit for me tomorrow. Was easy to take out, bout 15mins, hopefully she'll go back in as sweet!!

 

Went back in grand. Did it a couple of nights ago and seems to be working fine since. So thanks for the help

 

good to hear you got the problem solved.