Replacing the Alternator - 2011 Corolla XRS

[Der Bugmeister]

The alternator in my 2011 Corolla failed the other night, when my wife was running errands with it of course.  I drove it home on the battery, pulled the positive cable and the engine died, pointing to the alternator.  So, how hard could it be to replace a little old alternator in such a common car?  Well lemme tell ya....

My car is the XRS version, the last year it was available in Canada (2010 was the last year they were sold in the US) and I believe mine was the last one sold in Canada.  I bought it in early 2012, the dealership was trying to clear old stock.  A salesman at another dealership was trying to upsell me to a Camry and looked up the Corolla XRS, telling me the one I was looking at was the last one anywhere.  So kinda cool.

The XRS features a 2.4 litre engine compared to the 1.8 litre in the regular models at the time.  Some of the other differences included sportier suspension, stiffer steering feedback and a few other things.  It's interesting to note that my daughter's 2022 Corolla 6M  (6 speed manual) isn't a performance model but has more horsepower, better gas mileage and a smaller engine than mine.

But back to the alternator.  (I'll have to grab some photos when I "go back in").  It's accessible from the top, three simple wire disconnects.  The belt tensioner, however, is a royal PITA to access.  Have to jack the car up an remove the wheel and under engine splash guard to access the tensioner lock bolt.  A 19mm socket and ratchet or breaker bar is needed to relieve the tension to get the belt off but about the only way to get onto the 19mm boss is to remove the engine mount.  You can see the socket in position for that in the photos.  A bunch of bolts on the topside and one only accessible from underneath.  And then it's a tight squeeze unbolting the alternator and working it out of the engine bay.

So I got the new alternator bolted in and moved the tensioner to get the belt back on.  It was still pretty tight, so a little more pressure on the handle, and SNAP!  The 19mm boss broke off the tensioner assembly.  Argh.  As it turns out, it's a good idea to replace the tensioner assembly and the belt any time you replace the alternator, or so I'm learning.  I'll be picking this back up with more photos once I get some parts to continue!

[fatfillup]

Yes looks like a PITA

I really like my old Chevy trucks.  Alternator or starter were 20 minute jobs.

[goodfellow]

I feel for you Clay -- been there and done that. Bright side is that you got it handled in short order, and the mishap is readily rectified.
BTW -- nice looking car for a 2012 model year. Good thing is that those older Corolla engines are so well built that they'll be happily chugging along well over a decade from now.

[Der Bugmeister]

The photos of the car are several years old!  It still looks decent but isn't quite so spic and span.

I'm accustomed to alternator swaps being pretty straightforward too, Phil!  I started the job in my driveway on Tuesday figuring I could knock it out in half an hour and hand out candies to the few trick or treaters we get in the area.  It didn't take me long to realize the job was a lot more involved than that so I reconnected everything and made room for it in my shop.  Now my Beetle and Cutlass chassis are outside partially protected by a car shelter and tarp. 

The sticker shock on the tensioner is real.  Calling around locally, the price ranged from about $400 to over $600 (Canadian$$$) with the dealership being somewhere near the upper end of that (but not the most expensive).   None of them had the part on the shelves so I'd be having to wait for the part anyhow.  Rock Auto was a lot cheaper, coming in at $250 CDN including a new belt (I was quoted $80 just for the belt at one place!) but I have to wait until at least Wednesday for the part.  Being down to a single vehicle isn't going to be fun!

Rock Auto's prices started at $154 for a Continental brand on clear out and went up from there.  The one anomoly was an SKP brand "Economy Replacement" for $32!  Assuming it's the complete assembly and not just a replacement part, I don't have confidence that a part priced so much lower would be worth the savings in the long run.

I do love my Toyotas...but right now I'm not too happy with them :-D

[oldcarguy]

It never ceases to amaze me to discover what should be an easy task to replace a part turns out to be a day's project.  Does anyone believe that today's engineers care about the poor mechanic that needs to work on replacing that alternator? Some things just don't change. When I work on 100 plus year old car, I find myself dealing with same kind of issues. Of course Rock Auto does not carry parts. Need to improvise.. Plus I have a number of custom engineered sockets and wrenches to get the job done.

[muddy]

It never ceases to amaze me to discover what should be an easy task to replace a part turns out to be a day's project.  Does anyone believe that today's engineers care about the poor mechanic that needs to work on replacing that alternator? Some things just don't change. When I work on 100 plus year old car, I find myself dealing with same kind of issues. Of course Rock Auto does not carry parts. Need to improvise.. Plus I have a number of custom engineered sockets and wrenches to get the job done.

Yep I've seen plenty of old stuff with PIA designs. Oftentimes like you said parts availability makes it even harder since you may not want to damage or remove another part and open up another can of worms.

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[Der Bugmeister]

Well...that turned into more of an ordeal than I could have imagined.  It seems the original tensioners have a bit of a reputation for being brittle and breaking.  I also saw several recommendations to replace the trio - alternator, belt and tensioner - at the same time, not just one or two of the three.  We're at 250,000 km and haven't replaced any of them yet, so all going well it's a one time job.  Knock wood!

The new tensioner appears to be sourced from the OEM supplier ("Conti" aka Continental) on both tensioner frames.  In a side by side comparison it's evident how the replacement part has been significantly beefed up.

The assembly is buried in the middle of the pulleys and belt making access mostly a "by feel" thing.  You can see my flex handle ratchet with the socket on the 19 mm boss.  Hard to get on it, and not much room once you put a ratchet in there.

[goodfellow]

Good work Clay. PITA, but it’s done and you did it well. Congrats!


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[Der Bugmeister]

I mentioned earlier that my car had a bit of a performance upgrade by Corolla standards, with the 2.4 litre engine.  This engine was also used in some Camry models, the Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe in the years leading up to 2011, and probably wasn't really designed with the Corolla in mind.  What this means is that the engine to body clearances are pretty tight.  In fact, so tight that the only way to remove the pivot/mount bolt from the tensioner is to jack the engine up several inches until the bolt head just clears the body metal.

Fortunately nothing further needed to be removed in order to raise it up.

With the engine up, replacing the tensioner is now possible.  I could also see the area I was working in for the first time.  In the photos you might get some idea how hard the mounting bolt is to reach (the lower one at the bottom of the spring is easy to get at from underneath.  When the belt is installed, it runs from the power steering pulley on the left to the alternator pulley on the right.  This is the longest unsupported run, and effectively hides everything underneath it.  By now I had also removed the engine side of the mount for more clearance.

The water pump pulley had some black build up which appears to be rubber transfer from the old belt.  I removed the material, gave it a gentle shine with some 400 or so grit emery and cleaned it with degreaser before moving on.

Now it's just a matter of routing the new belt, lowering the engine and buttoning everything back up.  Ummmm...rightttt....

The alternator has a flange on each side of the pulley and is not the recommended "last pulley" to get the belt onto.  In one video, they put it on the tensioner pulley last which also turned out to not be simple due to access and the aforementioned ratchet handle size.  It's diameter left precious little space to slip the belt into place.  It turns out that the ideal final pulley is the smooth water pump pulley right beside the tensioner pulley.

What a PITA, but the parts were now installed but the belt seemed to be excessively loose despite all the numbers showing as being correct for the car.  With nothing to compare it against, I proceeded to lower the engine, install the engine mount and start the car.  All seemed to be operating properly but that belt was sure flapping around.  My retired Toyota tech buddy confirmed this wasn't right.

The part number on the belt was PK1910, and another compatible belt was PK1907 which had a slightly smaller outer circumference.  So I picked up the new belt and I also decided I was tired of messing around with the wrong tool for moving the tensioner.  I picked up the proper "Serpentine Belt Tool Kit" aka two piece flat bar assembly.  It came with  four sockets but of course the biggest one in the kit was 18mm.  My fitting is 19mm.  But I just needed the tool itself, really.  What a difference the right tool for the job makes.

Back home, I swapped to the shorter belt.  Starting to get pretty adept at routing the belt and getting it past the tighter clearances by now!  Damn thing was still too loose...better, but still loose.  And the engine was now making what sounded like an intermittent metallic ticking sound from that area.  Taking a video of the belt running, I could see that top run flexing and twisting over 45 degrees from flat and concluded the ticking was the sound of the belt contacting engine somewhere.

At this point, I swapped back to the original worn belt to see how much tension it had, then swapped each of the two new belts back on for comparison.  The shorter belt seemed pretty consistent with the original but was still too loose.

[Der Bugmeister]

My 'yota tech buddy and I went back and forth by text a bit trying to sort it out.  He ran down all the usual suspects (belt routed right, physically compare belt lengths, alternator pulley same diameter, right tensioner, etc) until he said "Don't know what to tell ya...".

Right about then, I took a closer look at the side by side photos to see if there was a significant difference...and what do I notice?

See that little L shaped pin in there?  I'd noticed that, thought it seemed like an odd and awkward thing, but assumed it was part of the redesigned assemble.  On closer inspection, I realized it's purpose wasn't as a permanent retainer for the spring and retaining bar, but was compressing the spring and preventing full extension. 

As the car was fully reassembled, my best efforts to remove the pin in the driveway were easily thwarted by those inconsiderate engineers.  Back into the shop, off comes the wheel and splash guard.  Now I could use the flat bar tensioner tool from above and (thankfully I have long arms) reach in through the wheel well to pull that pin out.

Finally!  Good tension on the belt.  But man, what a process.  I've never encountered such a pain in the butt alternator replacement.  Now, if my buddy's Nissan Titan needs a new starter, he's on his own.  The starter's under the intake manifold!