I have a 1997 Toyota RAV4 with a dying alternator. The battery, which is new, won’t hold a charge and needs to be jumped just to get the car to start. It’s probably the alternator.
I have no problems buying an alternator. I’m just asking how easy it would be to replace it myself or, more likely, have Airman replace it for me. (He lives for that stuff.) Keep in mind that I know nothing about cars except how to drive them.
Thanks!
Robin
If you can see the alternator and access the mounting bolts, replacing it is probably one of the easiest vehicle repair jobs going. Trouble is that on some modern vehicles, everything is sardined into the engine compartment so tight that you have to remove other bits to work on the bit you want - not sure if this is the case with the Rav4.
An alternator should be held on by a few bolts, have a serpentine belt attached to it, and one or more electrical connections. Not too complicated in that respect. But where is the alternator located? Is it under a bunch of other stuff or is it easily accessible? I bet in a RAV4 it will be buried. That means you’re not just replacing an alternator, you’re disassembling and reassembling whatever else is in the way.
Do you have a good set of tools? A metric socket set at the bare minimum. Plus you’ll probably need screwdrivers, pliers, things like that. A shop manual as well to guide you.
If you want to try, go for it. You may find you’re more mechanically inclined than you think. Your best bet is probably to do it while Airman guides you.
Have it checked first. A lot of auto parts shops will test your alternator for free - some are even set up for in-car testing, as opposed to wrench it out and bringing it into the shop, only to find it’s the battery or some other part that’s gone bad.
If it is bad, alternators are usually held on with two bolts, one electrical plug and one big wire under a nut. You’ll need to disconnect the battery and disengage the serpentine drive belt first. They’re really pretty simple things to swap. As long as you have it off, give the drive belt a good looking-at. If it’s the original, go ahead and replace it as well.
About that new battery - was it fully charged before installing, or were you trying to charge up the battery from zero? If the latter, that’s what fried the alternator - they’re meant more as battery maintainers than battery chargers.
I would second the suggestion of getting it checked independently (not the dealers)
I have a friend who had a Toyota Carina. The dealer told him the alternator was dead and was going to charge him £600+labour+VAT.
A small independent auto-electrical workshop fixed it in 2 hours for £30 - just fitted a new diode pack, which was all that was wrong with it. Car went for years after that with no further problems.
It’s different on different cars, but my info shows the RAV4 to be an easy one.
“Battery won’t hold a charge” doesn’t lead to a specific diagnosis. Possibilities include battery won’t hold a charge because the battery is defective (its being new doesn’t preclude this), battery won’t stay charged because of an electrical drain, and battery isn’t getting charged because of faulty alternator.
Testing by parts replacement can get really expensive. It may well need an alternator, but that’s not a certainty. Buying a new alternator only to find that wasn’t the problem will not be a joyful experience.
I’ve replaced one. If there is a way to do it without skinning your knuckles, I do not know about it.
Dunno what assemblage of tools Airman has. It shouldn’t be that difficult, as GaryT has indicated. Yell if you get in a bad spot.
Always push wrenches/ratchets with an open hand.
Thanks, although I’ve always known that, every time my hand is under the hood of a car, old habits…
I haven’t seen the inside of your car, but alternators are generally not hard to replace, depending on how crunched you are for space in there. In my Mitsubishi I spent 6 hours getting the damn thing out because the guy who had owned it before me didn’t do any kind of maintenance and the thing was rusted into place. But honestly, all I used was a ratchet set and a crescent wrench. Putting it in was a piece of cake.
~Tasha
Update:
I kept telling Robin that it could have been one of a few things, and for some reason she latched onto the alternator and decided that that was the cause, no question about it. It wasn’t. It was a defective battery, replaced under warranty. Cheapest repair I ever saw.
As for the alternator, it is right on top and in front, so it won’t be too much of a problem if I ever have to replace it.
Isn’t there an indicator on the instrument panel that lights up when the battery is experiencing a net drain? Or, failing that, an ammeter that indicates which way electrons are flowing (into or out of the battery)?
I’ve never been in a RAV4, so I’m not really in a position to know for sure. But my general experience with car dashboards leads me to expect that a bad alternator should be flagged by at least one other symptom, aside from the battery not staying alive very long.
There is an indicator that theoretically indicates a problem with the electrical system, although I’m not sure of what aspect it monitors because it never came on. In my old 1993 Escort that I drove around for weeks with a dying alternator (it’s amazing what you can do with a manual and no money) I never got any indications, either, so I’m forced to conclude that the light is there to reassure you, not to actually indicate anything.
Alternators aren’t a major deal. There are a number of assumptions here - one is that replacement of the alternator is the problem, two that you have all the necessary tools to complete the job, and three, it’s worth the (sometimes) aggravation of DIY car wrenching.
Four, you’ll pay what is called a core-charge, this simply means that you exchange your old, presumably bad alternator for a new one at the listed price. Buying a new one outright costs a bit more. I don’t know if alternators are a crap-shoot, but as I understand it finding a decent “rebuilt” starter these days can be a dicey affair.