2005 Acura TSX alternator removal

The Acura factory service manual tells us to remove the belt, disconnect the wiring harness and the battery wire, and then remove the three bolts to remove the alternator.

Only, they don’t tell us how to get enough room to undo those lower two bolts!  There is very little clearance between the fan casing and the bolt, and there is also an air conditioner line midway between the two bolts.

The answer is to move the radiator to the side.  This is not an easy task, as it requires extra work.  In order to gain some room to move the radiator over, you need to remove the battery, battery tray and the air duct in order to make room to move the radiator.  The radiator itself is easy to remove.  You remove the upper trim panel, undo the two top brackets, and the radiator pulls right out–it sits on rubber mounts.  Since the radiator and transmission lines are all rubber hoses, you can scoot the radiator sideways just enough to make room for your ratchets.

Beyond that?  Three bolts out, three bolts in, reconnect your wires and loop the belt back around, and your alternator is done!

While it’s out, you might also consider changing your belt, and the tensioner pulley (or the entire tensioner), since they are right there.  The tensioner pulley can be tricky since there is a nut that holds the bolt into the tensioner, and it can fall out of the back, and make it difficult if not impossible to reattach the bolt.  I usually remove the tensioner to replace the pulley.  It can help to remove the right engine mount to make room to remove the tensioner also.

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