I'm not sure where you got that number. Are you referring to factory alternators remanufactured? Most of what I'm seeing is $75 - $140 reman's

 

That makes sense, I found some videos on the other lexus forums showing a video of how to take it out properly in order. I'm assuming i will need to spray penetrating fluid on there the day before it arrives since it's 25 years old.

Also Oreillys sells 2 different 41 inch serpentine belts, 41 3/16 and the other is 41 7/16. Do I need to figure out my pully size for determining which one I buy for that?

Edit: I'm going off the assumption that the slightly shorter belt is for the 58mm pulley and the longer belt is for my 65mm pulley, so I went ahead and bought the longer belt at Oreillys for $35. (Gates brand)

 

If I am measuring this correctly as I understood it, my car has a 65mm pulley alternator. (It was about 2.6 inchs)

 

If I'm looking at this link you sent properly, the oe manufacturer for this is "Nippodenso". Is that technically denso?
I'm going to go ahead and purchase this one. It has the warranty so hopefully its not crap like the autozone ones.

 

Nippondenso is the original company name was shortened to Denso. Alternator in question IS a Denso, they take the used unit clean it up and replace any worn or damaged parts.

 

Amazon has alternators for 115 dollars all day long..
Ebay has the brush rebuild kit for 40 bucks..
It won't get any cheaper than that.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/28514627623...3ABFBMuMLKv7Nm

 

This dang alternator is kicking my butt. So I got the new alternator and krikit belt gauge, as suggested here, in the mail today. So at 5:30, I started working on it out in the driveway because I assumed it was a quick job, loosen the alternator, swivel it down, remove the belt, swap it, new belt, move it back right? NOPE. My dad said something and I got to thinking it might be a loose belt that was mimicing alternator issues. So I wanted to swap the belt only and retest the alternator with a properly tensioned belt. I asked AI and looked it up and it said the belt should be at like 160-180 lbs on the krikit gauge right? (Is that the right amount? or is that really tight?).

Either way, once I loosened the bolt underneath the alternator, and loosened the main bolt with a long thread, It dropped and fell onto a hose underneath the alternator, and that was still way to tight to get the belt off. The belt was loose and I could move it side to side flat, but inside the pulley, it was still far to tight to come off. I also slightly loosened the hinge bolt as well so that wasn't the issue. (It looks like it isn't touching it but in person, the alternator is sitting on the hose. There is space in the screw at the lowest position)




So, I have some questions:

1. If I can twist the belt from flat to maybe about 100 degrees to either side, is that to loose to where it can mimic a bad alternator under load? (I posted some pictures below of the belts before I touched anything bolt wise)
2. Is the reason why I can't get the belt off because someone used the slightly shorter belt that's 1/4" shorter and previously replaced it and forced it on there?
3. When it is cold outside, I can sometimes hear the belt squeak on a cold start and after about 10-30s it goes away, does that mean the belt is to loose?
4. I currently have a belt that the packaging says is 41 9/16. Will that be to long for it to be tensioned properly?
5. I am thinking the lbs mentioned above is way to much because my dad was shocked at that number, If not does anyone know the correct number?




Thanks in advance for the MUCH needed incite. I am struggling right now lol.

(For now I just retightened all the bolts to at or more of what they were before and I hope I got the bottom pivot bolt threaded properly. I won't be able to work on this and have a grace period of the next day in case things go wrong for another few days.)
(Edit: I forgot to mention, I tightened the belt to where before I touched anything it was able to move on the pulleys with my pulling back and forth, but now it won't move anywhere with my hands. I did start the car and it does spin properly though. I am still able to twist the belt but about as much as before though even though I probably did a few more full turns of the adjustment screw.)

 

I will do my best in explaining, but you have to translate and apply it. There may be drawing that some kind member posted ,,, please check the DIY sticky that will take you to the DIY.

Terms:
Tension long-bolt Lock This must be loosened before you turn the tensioner long bolt. [Step1 Loosen this]
Pivot fastener [this is where the alternator pivots/spins to push away the center of alternator pulley, producing tension or slack in the belt. Step 2 Loosen this so that the alternator can swing.
Position fastener [This is on the slotted arc mount point] This where the alternator is clamped/fixed on the tension causing arc. Step 3 Loosen this so that you can swing the alternator.
Tension long bolt This pushes the alternator away (tension) or allows it to be pushed near (slack). Important: All holds must be removed before turning this long bolt. Step1-3 will allow this. Step4: Turn the long bolt to allow you to move the alternator in the arc. With enough turns, a fair amount of movement can be achieved [gravity will swing the alternator to cause some tension but you can swing it up and the swing will be more or less based on the long bolt position.

Important when installing and creating tension Pivot bolt should loose, Position faster should be very loose, Tension long bolt should be very loose. Turn the Tension long bolt to create required tension. Face the Position & Pivot -> recheck belt tension. Secure/torque Position and Pivot. Secure torque the Tensioning-bolt Lock.

Please check the DIY for tension of the belt. I think I recorded the numbers there. There is a substantial difference in new belt and after 10 mins of use. To me the new belt tension would be for OEM belt.

Salim

 

Found this:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ustment-2.html

Diagram in there is worth thousand words.

Salim

 

So there has been some chaos going on since I last posted here. I had some more symptoms of something going on and I ignored it stupidly for a couple weeks and my car suddenly shut off in the middle of the road no warning. I assumed this was the alternator finally crapping out, but once my car was towed home and a cop drove me back to my work from lunch (lol). My dad replaced the alternator and serpentine belt for me while I finished my shift. Then he came and picked me up from work and on the drive home, as we pulled into our subdivision, the car engine suddenly stopped again, like drop to 0 rpm while the car was in motion.

Back before the engine died, for the past couple weeks, there has been a staticy noise that would come on and off near the fuse box randomly for random amounts of time, this started after I tried to repair my own alternator a few days ago, and this also started at the same time my blower fan for AC is making a new consistent noise.

So we pushed it the rest of the way home and after some diagnosing, I figured out my EFI relay was bad. (I found a lot of symptoms between here and there). Several electrical engine codes and a weird staticy noise coming from the engine near the fuse box intermittently, and asking ChatGPT to link the issues and what's wrong, and yea. After the second engine shut off, we restarted the engine at home and the car was sputtering at idle but holding at 1500+ rpm stable.

So after all that, the horn and EFI relay were swapped, and the car decided to idle perfectly for a while, then I decided to make sure its fine and ran it idling in the garage for maybe 10 minutes, and at around 6 ish minutes, the staticy noise came back again and while it was happening, the engine light flickered and then came on stable (code P1300 igniter circuit) and the engine sputtered as well. I instantly shut off the car and have not turned it back on since.

And that is where i am right now. All of those relays in there currently say Toyota Denso, so I am assuming that those are the original relays from like 25 years ago. So I am replacing both of those just to be safe, since I know at least one of them is bad. I was inspecting the fuses and it appears one of them called D.C.C was blown and it was labeled as "Short" instead of like 15A. Its a solid white one instead of see through like the others. After a little bit of research, it appears that happened when the EFI relay had issues and that blew it (or something).

Anyways I am going off the assumption for tonight that replace those 2 relays will not permanently fix this particular issue since the swapped relays still had issues. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

My current running theory is that the blower motor for my ac that started making a new noise consistent noise at the same time the static started, it might be something to do with that, maybe the blower motor spiking and stealing voltage or something of the sort. I am gonna go put the good relay in the efi socket, lean the horn one empty, and run the car for 10 minutes with the ac turned off and see if it does the static stuff.

 

Horn is going to create a racket as well as the diaphragm that makes the sound works on on-of-on-of ... electric load -> spikes. Better option would be headlights and brake as load.

In the past I have best diagnosis done by taking the alternator to auto-parts-shop where they have a jig with motor to spin the alternator.

Taking the alternator in/out is not easy, but bite the bullet is what I would suggest.

Salim

 

The alternator has already been replaced by my dad while I was at work last night. It seems to be working just fine when testing with multimeter. Sorry I wasn't very clear last night.

I swapped the EFI and Horn relays and I am going to go to Oreillys or AutoZone and get a $20 replacement to rule that out potentially being a issue in the future, but I believe I found and fixed the issue.

Something online or in one of the AI chats mentioned a ground bolt on the intake manifold, and I have taken that off and put back on several times, but the last time was like 2 months before this started, so I double checked the bolts on there. One is in the back that I can't access without taking off several parts, but the side one I could access easily. I put a socket on there and turned it, and it went a full half turn before it went finger tight. So I torqued that down to probably something like 10 ft lbs. with a breaker bar and ran the car for about 10 minutes now, and drove it for 5 minutes, and I have not heard the static yet. I usually hear it within 8 ish mins.

My concern is that the blower fan started making a consistent noise like something is loose in that, at the same time the static started happening roughly. It is probably a coincidence and my dad says there's no possible way a physical blower fan issue could cause electrical issues. I will drive my car to AutoZone and back with the AC on and update y'all on how it works.

(Edit: We already put in the $80 alternator and it took my dad about 2 hours and I can not care enough to take it back out to put the core back in, even if it was functional.)

 

I was told that repaired stock alternator will be significantly better than any aftermarket

 

Next time see if someone can repair the alternator for you. A shop who does it for Lexus only charged me $100