My car defeated me today.
My car defeated me today.
The alternator on my car went kaput. Nowhere in my area would do the job for less than $800-something, and most places were quoting $900-$1k.
So I looked up how-tos on YouTube and it looked like something I, a woman with zero experience or knowledge of working on cars, could do.
I got a remanufactured alternator for $180 and got to work following the tutorials I'd found.
It certainly did not go smoothly, but I managed it. It took me 6 hours to get the alternator out, mainly because every goddamn bolt holding the parts in place were basically cemented in. I had to use my foot to stomp one loose because I didn't have the strength in my arms.
Today I spent another 4 hours trying to put in the new one and all the parts back in place. And I did it!!
Except for the power steering belt. That fucker would not go into place, and trying to force the belt tensioner back took every ounce of strength I could muster.
All that work. All that time and effort and THE VERY LAST STEP to get my car up and running defeated me today. I had to get a task rabbit guy. He's coming tomorrow to get my belt back on.
On one hand I feel proud that I made it this far. On the other I feel like a complete failure because it turns out I couldn't complete the task myself.
Anyway, how was your weekend?
That's a major success and you should be super proud of yourself! You saved a ton of $$ and learned something new - total win-win!
Hey thanks. Yeah, the one thing I'm happy about is that I saved about $500 this weekend, if my car starts, that is. Here's hoping! Thanks for the perk up!
Sounds like your car did not defeat you, and like you kicked a lot of ass. Serpentine belts are a giant pain in the ass - fought with one myself today. Just gotta have the right tool, which in this case is one of those that gets used once every 5 years unless you work on a lot of cars. You did great, and should be proud of what you accomplished!
Oh, that makes me feel better that I'm not the only one that struggles with them. And yeah, I was so jealous of the people in the video for it. Thanks for the pick-me-up, I feel better about it.
Yeah, I show off my belt tensioner tool to visitors every chance I get, since now that I've used it once, its purpose is mostly ornamental.
Listen, I took autoship in highschool, my dad talked me into doing an engine swap on his 1969 Volvo and got me to do all kinds of maintenance on his 1955 Chevy pickup truck, all before I turned 18. Out of highschool I got a job in a shop that specialized in Mazda rotary engines. I have worked on so many cars for money and as a favor for friends and I can tell you I have been similarly defeated so many times by similar simple things. It happens to everybody sooner or later, even guys with giant toolboxes and years of experience. Sometimes you just need help, and that's ok.
I'm proud of you, cuz I know how these kinds of jobs can be, and how exhausting it is just getting hard to reach bolts undone. You're not a failure, you are great. Bongo Stryker says so.
In some cars you really just need an extra set of hands to get a belt back on. One person on the tensioner and another actually moving the belt into place. Don't feel bad, feel good. You did great.
Exactly what ^ said. Be proud.
A longer wrench helps too. Leverage baby!
Props on getting so much done!
trying to force the belt tensioner back took every ounce of strength I could muster.
You need a breaker bar. Already have one? You need a breaker bar and a pipe 😀
+1 for the "Breaker Extender" lead pipe.
Good job! Sounds like it was your first time and things generally well.
This weekend a patched a hole in drywall for the first time and i feel like i did a pretty good job!
Things went well in that I didn't break anything except for a corroded bolt. I also dropped a wrench own into the under carriage somewhere, so that'll be fun to hear rattling around.
Dry hole patching is hard, I'm glad things went well for you too!
Congrats on saving $800! Sure you had to bust your ass and in the end pay whatever task rabbit is - what, a 1-hour minimum for under a further $100. Take that $700 you didn't need to spend on car repairs, and and if you have it, save it. If you don't have it, think of all that credit interest you don't have to pay. And go order yourself a pizza.
Replacing the alternator can be either the easiest or most difficult task ever, depending on the car. But if it's a Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge, it'll always be difficult because they hate their customers.
In theory, it should always be easy. Loosen the tensioner, pop off the belt, unscrew a few things, remove a couple wires, pop it out, and perform the steps in reverse. But sometimes it gets stuck or the manufacturer requires you to practically take half the car apart to get to it.
What might help is getting a second set of hands. Sometimes it just takes one person putting the belt on while the other is holding the tensioner back.
Yes, so much this. Every time I have to do something in the engine bay, I get a friend. A six-pack, a dinner, or whatever other small favor they need in return returns gold for pennies in the investment. If only the damn engineers would have the incentive to make working in the engine as easy as changing the oil (though Subaru even fucked that one up), life would be a breeze.
Step 1 for any car repair I want to do on my own is to look at how accessible the part is. If it's easy to reach, I'll do it. That's why I like working on my old V8 F-150. Last year, I replaced the intermediate steering shaft, which I assumed would be difficult, but the entire thing is easily reachable beside the engine thanks to the huge engine bay.
It's also one reason why I don't touch my mid-engine Porsche despite very high labor rates at the shop. Besides being mid-engined, German engineering requires simple things to be weirdly complex. For example, replacing the battery can cause a control unit to forget that the car is equipped with heated seats, so they stop working.
Yeah, that's not a surprise. German and Italian imports love to have some odd complication.
They're not alone, though. GM also loves their boneheaded decisions. My parents old LeSabre had the battery go out. For some odd reason, they decided it should be placed under the back seat.
You likely just need a longer breaker bar to give yourself more leverage on the tensioner.
Was just about to post this or a metal pipe to put around the wrench.
Depends if you can fit any of the tools though some alternators are buried deep.
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That's so awesome. I'm down to save money where I can, so I'd be up for more projects if it comes down to it. and yeah, I was a bit shocked that I was able to figure out how to get some of it done, so that does feel good. Thanks for your comment. :)
You got further than I've ever gotten trying to fix anything car-related. Good job! I feel like technology's in such a complicated place at this point that nobody's expected to be able to handle every single step of every situation on their own. You did awesome.
There's a belt tensioner tool that can be rented from the auto parts store. This helps greatly to pull back the belt pulley to get a belt on. Had to do it once and having that tool made a big difference.
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This is how it starts. Soon, you'll start putting together a small collection of tools, and more knowledge about how the car is put together, and you will be driving a perfectly maintained and operational car that has a ton of miles on it, and it won't give you any trouble - or at least, it won't give you trouble you can't solve.
That's how I got started. I took the few hundred dollars I saved on my first project and bought a ratchet set, a hydraulic jack, and jack stands. The second repair I bought an air compressor and impact driver set because fuck, working on cars is hard! All that allows me to fix about 95% of my car's issues and I can borrow tools for free from the parts store for the odd 5%.
The parts store tool rental program is a lifesaver. I don't need to keep a bunch of obscure and expensive weird special tools around, and I don't have to do sketchy or dangerous things that risk tearing up another part, or hurting myself.
I maintain that the best way to learn to mechanic is a 20 year old truck (any make) and a Harbor Freight socket set.
As someone who works on vehicles a lot, not a profesional mechanic but have a couple older vehicles that I've been repairing and modifying including rebuilding the engine in one so far, I can say getting belts to cooperate and go where they're suppose to is often one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of repairs. There's most of the time very little room to get to where you need to and the belts are tight even when they have as much slack as possible. This weekend I replaced a timing belt, water pump, motor mount, and serpentine belt on my fiance's car and ignition coil packs, and dropped a gas tank to replace a fuel pump on a coworker's truck. When I was putting the serpentine belt on my fiance's car I got frustrated with it and moved on to something else for a little bit and then when I had nothing else except the belt and reattaching stuff that would be in the way of the belt, I went back to fighting with it. Especially for doing your first vehicle repairs you're likely missing tools that would make the job way easier so you're essentially doing the job on hard mode so getting as far as you have is still a major accomplishment. Some advice though, before you get the belt on go back over all the bolts and try to make sure they're as tight as you can get them. Without having a torque wrench to make sure they're as tight as they're suppose to be it's difficult to tell if they're fully tight especially if you've been fighting with it and are physically worn out at the time. I've had times where I tightened bolts as much as I could but was so exhausted I didn't have the strength to get them tight enough but didn't realize it at the time.
Hey, thank you so much! Yeah, the mechanic that's coming tomorrow is paid by the hour, so I'm going to have him check all the bolts for me, cause yeah, I am a bit worried the vibration from driving every day will loosen the bolts if it's just my strength that's tightened them.
Thanks for the words of encouragement, I appreciate it.
All bolts in a vehicle have a torque spec from the manufacturer. You can find these in the service manual that you may be able to buy from a dealership, or in a Chilton or Haynes manual for your car. Once you know the torque spec you can use a torque wrench (you should be able to rent one from an auto parts store) to make sure the bolts are tightened down just right.
Also next time I'd suggest using blue LocTite on the threads of your bolts. This acts as a mild "glue" to keep bolts from backing out. That can be found in any hardware or auto parts store as well
I get it. Do all that work, and at the end, it's still not working? Ugh, that's the worst :( I always feel super defeated in that sort of circumstance.
OTOH...I have to echo the others giving you a virtual pat on the back. You were super stretching your DIY skills! Kudos for going for it! That's not an easy thing to do, and it sounds like you got through 99% of the job. That's def something where you can be proud of yourself.
Dude, I'm super proud of you! Tackling something like that with almost zero experience is fucking awesome, and the fact that you almost completely fnished it by yourself--100% solo, no less--is bad ass as hell.
You got pretty damn far. Those tensioners can be a bitch, I usually call a buddy whenever I have to muck with one because it's easier to manipulate either the tensioner or the belt. Good job!
If the only thing wrong after your first DIY repair job is a belt, yoy DID do a good job. What you experienced was quite normal, and you have now gained experience for the future.
I'm so glad that that seems to be the consensus, I was getting gown on myself there for a bit. :) thank you!
Something I learned as I got a little bit older. It's worth paying for things to save yourself the pain in the ass. I trade a dude weed to mow my lawn.
It’s worth paying for things to save yourself the pain in the ass
Agreed, but it's also worth knowing how to do things yourself, so you have the choice. On a car, the cost for some jobs is almost all labor, so having the option to do it yourself is great, plus it's a skill you can teach your kids.
With a breaker bar, OP could have had the alternator out and the new one bolted in place in an hour. The belt might still be a problem, but spending an hour, then paying someone $100 to do the belt, feels a lot better than spending 10 hours, then paying someone $100 to do the belt.
Yeah, and because I know how to properly change the oil in my car, I'm happy to pay someone else to do it
Grass 4 grass
With car stuff it's always "easy" in basic steps but it's the knowledge and expertise how to handle all the exceptions to the process that is why labour costs what it does.
There's tips and tricks for different car models but stuff like what to deal with a stuck bolt where even if I know what to do I probably don't have the right tools.
I'm not sure getting the tools is worth the once every few years job.
It's not too dissimilar from electronics work. Like laptop or cellphone repair. It's easy... But what's hard is troubleshooting when it all goes sideways on you.
Fuck 0' model VW Beetles... that's all I got to say. Shittiest electrical ever, and the entire car is held together by friggin plastic clips.
That's really most european shit. Toyota and honda are the best.
Good for you for even trying!! I'm a middle-aged man and I am an avid handyman, even though I have an office job as a profession. Like you, it started because I didn't want to pay someone else (I'm cheap that way). These days I am very adept at woodworking, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, felling trees, some car repair, and more. The way I look at it is "if THAT person can do it, so can I!".
You didn't fail today, simply for the reason that you attempted to do it. Don't stop there! Your confidence and your finances will thank you down the road.
experience gained is priceless
I would make sure those bolts you put back in are torqued to spec or that alternator could come loose in the future
Hate to be that person, but usually you leave the alternator loose before putting the belt on. Or force it on by sliding it with a screwdriver. I don’t know your particular car so I could be wrong.
Hmm, none of the videos I watched had them leaving the alternator loose, they tightened them up and left it as-is. I did see the screwdriver trick, and I tried that, but I just didn't have the strength to hold the tensioner at bay and force the belt into place.
Thanks for the suggestions though, I appreciate it. :)
I think he’s talking about the tensioner it’s loose so you can use it to tighten the belt via some threads. Depending on the car it might be attached at another part of the serpentine belt so you can loosen that one slip it on then tighten.
You should be so proud of yourself! That's a major accomplishment doing the research and figuring it out yourself.
Thank you! YouTube is literally a god-send. So many videos for car-specific fixes.
Sure doesn't sound like a failure to me. Sounds like someone who was able to put in the work and the time and saved a bunch of money!
That's impressive stuff. My brothers replaced alternator belt a few days ago and the trick to put the belt on was to put the belt on the engine spool, and crank the engine to let it do the rest of the job. The difference though is that this car did not have a tensioner.
I've been there, I once replaced the alternator on my dad's truck took like five minutes. Well, I was driving a 2002 ford focus and needed to replace the alternator on that. I did one before, should be easy right? That SOB fought me for 6 hours. They put that damn thing in such an inconvenient spot, to where I had to loosen up the engine mounts move the whole engine enough to squeeze it out. Still loved that little car even if it was a pain in the ass.
That’s effing awesome! I’m stereotypically someone that would look like I could do that in my sleep (male, lots of tools in my garage) and I definitely would have taken it somewhere to get changed. I don’t even know you and I’m proud af of you!
Way to go! You weren’t defeated, you did the whole job you were able to. You can get a short length of pipe that will slide over your wrench handle to give you extra leverage in cases like this.
I worked as a service writer in a shop full of mechanics (all men) and they all had a breaker bar wrench for these situations.
Also, if you’ve got the DIY bug now and you take on more projects find a store (Harbor Freight is good if in the US) that sells cheap tools, buy them there and if you use it enough to break it, then go buy the more expensive/better made version.
Saves from spending lots on a tool you rarely use.
Looks like you could have done it with a little leverage. Im sure the belt tensioner would have been tough to move as well. Spend that money on better tools. A big breaker bar seems to be a good start. Proper tools make everything easier. Welcome to the ill fix this shit myself club!
I'm going to be an outlier in my comment here but, for myself (an elderly dude who has done what you just did) I, personally, prefer to hire it done. You paid 2-3 hundred on parts and tools, put in 10+ hours of work and still have not got it working. I have come to appreciate the skill and ability of trades...they do that for a living - let them.
I'm really good at my chosen trade and I laugh at those that think they can just do my job because the watched a YouTube video about it. I fix their problems every day and charge them no more than someone who didn't fuck it up first because I can appreciate the effort but I don't charge them less because they did part of the work incorrectly.
I don't know... ~$600 saved with 10 hours of work, that's $60/hr. Even if she ends up paying someone $50 to put the belt back on, that's still not a bad way to spend some time on a holiday weekend.
That was my thought. I had $500 in my emergency fund, and needed to figure out how to do it for at most that amount. I've spent around $345 so far.
I’m going to be an outlier in my comment here but, for myself (an elderly dude who has done what you just did) I, personally, prefer to hire it done.
I think the "elderly" part may be biasing your decision. There are times in our lives when we have more time than money. Usually when we get older it flips to more money than time. There are still lots of things I do I could hire out (I still mow my own lawn as an example), but for skill trades for plumbing or complicated electrical I hire professionals.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't appreciate the work and skill of mechanics. I dont even think the price is that outrageous. I've had years of taking my cars in to get fixed, including an alternator replacement years and years ago. Would it have been easier than doing it this way? Yup.
But my small emergency fund was drained for something last week, and I went in to the shop with $500 to spare in total until I get paid on Thursday. The reality of my current situation is that I'm one of the millions of Americans that is one emergency away (okay, two) from financial failure, and I can't afford a $900 fix until my emergency fund is replenished. It'd just awful timing.
I'm a Substation Designer, I get what it feels like to have people who don't know your trade think it's simple or should be quick or whatever, but that wasn't my thought process. My thought process was to get more info on what I was asking mechanics to do, and when I watched the videos, it didn't look like a complicated fix in terms of parts and where they go.
I don't think I've fucked up the fix, I just don't have the strength to get the belt on. The guy coming tomorrow said he can do it, and he charges $45/hr, so we'll see how it goes then.
Sounds like you learned a lot. As far as the belt tensioner and not being able to budge it, usually stuff like that is a matter of leverage. You probably just need a breaker bar. Those are basically a longer version of a ratchet and are very useful for tight bolts. Usually they are pretty cheap too.
Hey, you did more with your car than I, a Y-chromosome-haver, could have ever done. I'm impressed! I couldn't change the oil in my car, let alone the alternator.
As for my weekend (no one else answered, but what the hell), it was sort of bittersweet. My mom is 81 and lives about an 75-minute drive away, so I only get to see her once or twice a month for a couple of hours, but I was actually able to spend about six hours with her on Saturday. We had a long chat, then my daughter got antsy, so we all went to the beautiful new library branch and then she dropped us off at the local mall and we all said goodbye. It was really nice, even though I know there won't be too many of those nice times left. Then I got to show my daughter A Hard Day's Night and Airplane! on Sunday and Monday. So that was pretty fun.
Thats one for the book of wins
I think you did an amazing job!
Now you know why they charge you that amount ;) Props for trying though, it seems you got the majority done.
This shit happens. You still did the majority of the work and should feel proud of yourself.
I've done smaller engine repairs and such, but still took my car to a shop when replacing an ABS sensor ring because I could NOT get the half axle nut off. Over the years, I reckon between all my cars I've owned it's been ~300-500 hours of me working on them (sometimes with help) and a total of ~15 hours of paid labour.
So I'm not meaning this in a mean way, but don't you have any friends that you could collaborate with? Even someone to chat with and search up youtube while you are under the car would have been fine.
I moved here a year ago, and ive made friends, but they're all women. I work mostly with men, but they're not into fixing cars, and im not close enough with any of them to reach out and ask for help on a weekend. I did consult a friend in my hometown, but there's little he can do over the phone.
Luckily I only had to get under the car once, to try ad get the wrench I dropped out of the undercarriage. I didn't find it and got so filthy. The job was done under the hood. :)
You need leverage to move that tensioner. Put a 18" bar on your wrench.
Look forward to fresh content on “just rolled into the shop” 😂
Jk - sounds like you got it installed by yourself though! Congrats. Only thing I have touched on my car is cleaning the battery terminals.
I've had similar experiences with my hobbies. It sucks feeling like the last thing has defeated you but that's what your car wants you to think. It wants you to give in give up let the shops handle it for you and spend money but nah dude!
You put that evil plan to rest!
Ok seriousness, You did the work and you accomplished a lot! Now you're getting the final task dealt with an teaching that car whose boss. Be proud of yourself. It doesn't matter how long the project took or what you had to do to finish it, it matters that you did what needed to be done and didn't give up.
Idn't workin' on cars fun?
Srsly tho, happens to the best of us. You'll get better as time goes by.
Ha, fun. I felt pretty cool getting in there and digging around though. Everything hurts now, including the palms of my hands. And I had to trim my fingernails down so I could feel around down there, lol.
Thanks for the encouraging words, I feel a lot better.