Removing the Alternator
First step is to remove the air box (filter housing). Snap the oil filler neck out of the clip on the airbox. There is one bolt just to the right of the engine cover catch. Remove this with a 13mm socket. The connector for the MAF sensor will need removing and its wire needs to be taken out of the two clips that hold it to the air box. One of these is obvious but the second is slightly harder to get to being hidden on the back right hand corner of the air box. The only other thing to do is to loosen the hose clamp that holds the rubber hose from the air box to the throttle body. Once these items are loose the air box can be lifted out. Tape over the end of the hose on the air box or jam a clean shop towel in the end to stop anything getting in there.
Now you have good access to the engine to loosen the tension on the serpentine belt. There is one tensioner pulley located roughly in the center of the belt layout. This pulley has a hex-head which you will need a 24mm socket to fit. Rotate the bolt in the pulley with a socket in a clockwise direction (I think - you'll soon find out if not) to loosen the tension on the belt. Keep the load on the pulley while removing the now slack belt from the alternator pulley and idler. You can now release the tensioner.
I also found it an advantage to remove the bracket just above the alternator to give me more space to manouver the alternator later.
Next you can loosen the bolts securing the alternator. There are two bolts that need removing. One of these is a long bolt that passes through the idler pulley to the right of the alternator. After passing through the pulley this bolt then goes through the front flange of the alternator, then fits in a long slotted feature which is fixed to the engine before screwing into a threaded bushing which is a press fit into the rear flange of the alternator. This threaded bushing can move in the flange and actually slides forward as you tighten the bolt so that the bushing and the back of the front flange clamp both ends of the long slot to secure the alternator.
You will find later that the threaded bushing needs to be pushed back into the flange in order to refit the alternator. If you are able to push it back in at this point it will also make the alternator easier to remove. To do this you need to loosen the long bolt by three or four turns then give the bolt head some sharp, hard taps with a hammer. It is a good idea to use a wooden block between the bolt head and the hammer. Once you have tapped it back far enough then you can remove this bolt and the second bolt on the left hand side of the alternator. The alternator should be relatively easy to wiggle out part way now so that you can remove the wiring connections on the back. When I did mine I didn’t manage to get the bushing to move and didn’t want to hit the bolt too hard and risk breaking a flange. It may have worked if I was to take the whole bolt out and soaking the threaded bushing with penetrating oil before refitting the bolt and trying again. As it was I managed to get the alternator loose by gently levering it up free of the clamping faces.
With the alternator part way out you can remove the plug on the back. It has a little catch that needs to be released before pulling it off but it should come off quite easily. Now you can move the alternator out further so that you can remove the nut from the terminal to remove the other wire. With the two wires removed the alternator can be removed from the car.
