Editing Alternator (section)

==Removal==
Should take about 1hr:
#Disconnect the battery
#Remove offside rear wheel and wheel arch liner
#Remove plastic cam cover - three 8mm screws
#Remove any exhaust manifold heat shield
#Remove main (largest) wire from alternator 13mm nut.  You can't remove the control wire (clip on connector) yet as the heat shield is in the way.  Leave this for now.
#Remove 15mm tension bolt
#Remove 15mm top bolt
#Pry alternator from bracket.  Start with small flat head screwdriver and gradually move to larger size as the alternator moves out.
#Disconnect control wire plug and remove belt from pully
#Extract alternator from above

*Removing the undertray offers no advantage although removing the boot lid is helpful.


A few notes from having done this recently to a 111S - clem2k3

#I didn't have to remove the heat shield on my car, the 13mm nut and plug were accessible from the wheelarch.
#The alternator had a small tensioning bolt in it (pushing against the tensioning bracket) that was seized and snapped. Replacement alternator (XPart unit from eliseparts 2023) didn't have a thread so I didn't replace it.
#The alternator did fit through the wheelarch hole so I didn't have to remove the cam cover.
#The biggest one: I needed quite a lot of leverage to get the bolts undone (I used cracking off bar on the top one) so I think it would have been improved by removing the middle undertray to get some space to swing a longer ratchet/bar. As it stands  I did remove the rear undertray/diffuser and used this extra access to push on the alternator to tension it while an assistant did up the bolts. I think it would have been overall quicker to remove the undertrays despite the fact it seems to be 1000 bolts to do this.


Hi Guys, 

Make sure that if your battery light comes on, before dismantling the alternator from the car etc, check the live wire from the starter motor to the alternator.
It sits underneath the inlet manifold and if original contains a fuse & a brown sleeve. 

Mine broke through corrosion from water leaks, if it breaks your battery wont charge at all leading to a lot of head scratching. 

Lotusboy90

Thanks for the information. Due to a bad connection of the car's lugs on the battery terminals, this fuse link cable burned out.