2019 Honda Pilot alternator replacement

2019 Honda Pilot alternator replacement. Quick notes. You’ll need a 12mm and 14mm sockets for alternator bolts. After disconnecting the battery, you’ll want to remove your electrical connectors from the alternator as well as the AC compressor. The connector on compressor is a squeeze type and is very hard to reach, but can be done with one hand. You may have a plastic wire tie holding that AC electrical line to the back of the alternator housing. You’ll have to carefully pull or cut that off. I could not pull mine and had to resort to cutting off. Next, you’ll want to start disconnecting the computer harness and connectors next to that and unbolt from the body. There are two 10mm bolts for the bracket. One on top of fenderwell and one at bottom of the bracket. Flip the entire harness up and out of the way on the top of the engine and you may have to loosen the black plastic hold down on the front of the engine harness as well to do this. Remove computer and set aside. Next, you’ll want to use a 17mm on a breaker bar and pull towards from bumper to loosen serpentine belt and remove from alternator. Lastly, you’ll remove your alternator top and bottom bolts. You can I’ll also need to remove the small cast iron bracket from top of alternator (careful to note how it’s positioned). You can work it out of the bottom bolt slot by wiggling it backwards and forwards and upward. It’s helpful to pop off the retaining clip holding small wire loom on bottom of fenderwell as the alternator clearance is very slim. Remove alternator from underneath the hard AC line and put towards the side of the car.

[Chaotic_Lemming]

I just finished doing this.... took 4 hours. When he says its a pain, that's a vast understatement. Just have a few things to add that may help anyone else tackling this job.

You may need an allen wrench for the alternator top mounting bolt. The mounting bracket on mine was attached to the engine block with a 12 mm bolt, but the bolt for the attaching the alternator to the bracket was an allen head (not sure of the size, the wrench I used wasn't stamped with it's size). It was also torqued to hell by the factory, I had to use a cheater bar with the allen wrench to break it free. You can't just undo the 12 mm mounting bracket bolt, the hex bolt attaching the alternator to the bracket is also holding a bracket for the hard a/c line.

The lower alternator mounting bracket on the engine block has a sleeve insert that is wider than the mounting bracket. This gets pushed in when the factory tightens the mounting bolt and is the reason you have to wiggle the alternator to pull it from the lower mounting point. It ALSO means you probably won't be able to put the new alternator in. I was able to push the sleeve back out (with a lot of effort) with a 3' pry bar using a spot on the engine block near where the bracket for the top alternator bolt is as a lever point (you have to have removed that bracket to use the spot).

The a/c line that's in the way has another plastic mount back towards the firewall. If you open that plastic bracket up (not easy to do, it's meant to close and stay closed) it lets you wiggle the a/c line a little further out of the way.

"The clearance is very slim" is an understatement. You really don't actually have the clearance and will be pulling the hard a/c line to the side to barely get the alternator out. You HAVE to disconnect the wiring harness running along the frame, there are a few plastic retainers along its length. That isn't optional, if the harness can't shift enough you will not be getting the alternator out. There is good news though, the new alternator will go back through that opening about 10 times easier.

This entire process has made me despise Honda. I've changed alternators on other vehicles in 20 minutes. I also couldn't find torque specifications for the alternator mounting and bracket bolts anywhere. I'm not a fan of just tightening things until it feels like "enough".

[patrickmurphy]

Quick overview of the exact steps. My type of video.