fsumedic

Well I had been having a pretty good Thanksgiving so far until I made a bone head mistake. I just got back from getting my battery recharged at Autozone and was in the process of putting it back on. I was in a rush to get to Best Buy to do some holiday shopping and crossed the battery terminals for a brief second. I realized it as soon as I saw a spark and was like "awww crap". Well i turned the battery around and fixed the problem but in the process I've come to realize that I fried my alternator. So there goes my Christmas holiday money. So now i have to have the car towed 5 hours away to South Carolina so my brother(who is a audi tech) can do the work and in the process he's gonna do the timing belt since I just hit 100K miles. I guess I'll be putting in overtime these holidays to pay for the repairs.But everything happens for a reason.

radhaz

I too had a bad day. I was driving off the cv joint with an impact wrench and the old axle bolt to repair the boot. Now i'm looking at an entire axle, on Saturday.
As you say, stuff happens~

fsumedic

So change of plans, I was gonna get the car towed but I've been doing some research and I think I'm gonna replace the alternator myself. I'm gonna use my laptop's webcam and have my bro help me out that way. Now I just have to get the parts and tools together. I've got some experience working on older vehicles and I feel with the forum and my bro's help I cant accomplish this. Has any one else done this job yourselves?

radhaz

I've done the alternator on my 2.8. I had trouble getting the thing out, even with the car's nose swung out of the way.
I've heard the 4.2 is easier.
I just looked at my Bentley manual, no need to pull the nose on a 4.2. Lucky you~

fsumedic

Oh really. I couldn't find a diy write up. And my brother has only worked on the 2.7,2.8,3.0( he works only mostly mercedes at his indy shop) Can you reach it without taking the front bumper off? I've been meaning to get a manual but kept putting it off.

radhaz

Yes, my manual doesn't mention service position for the 4.2, just for the smaller motors.

fsumedic

Wow!! You just saved me several hours of work. My bro double checked his stuff and found what you were talking about. Just gotta jack the car up and go from the bottom. Here's what he sent me in case anyone else needed to know what to do. Disconnect battery cable. Remove 10 quick release bolts and under car splash shield. Move alternator bolt tensioner to loosen alternator belt and insert drift in retaining hole to hold tensioner in slack position.Remove belt and remove cooling tube to alternator. Remove bolts,wiring and remove alternator from car. Reverse procedure to install. Thanks again for the heads up.

radhaz

NP, good luck with the work~

fsumedic

Just got the alternator off(took around an hour) and I'm sending it priority to my bro. He got me a bosch for 190 with the core. Hopefully I can get it on the road by the weekend. Thought that was pretty good for the first time I've stuck my hand in the audi.