Electrics: S80 Alternator Replacement Walk Through

[minerva1961]

Driving home on Thursday evening a week ago a warning light came up on my dashboard; "El. Power System Service Required". Bugger I thought. I got home safely but noticed that the engine wasn’t ticking over steady; the power was swinging up and down noticeably. Great!

So, as Mr Google is my best friend I asked him for advice and found this forum. Excellent. I did a search and El. Power System Service Required" seemed to strongly indicate that the Alternator was stuffed – or more likely the Voltage Regulator part of the Alternator.

OK, so it’s down to the world’s Most Expensive Garage at the bottom of the road to get a quote. I’d like a new alternator please, do I have to sell a kidney to afford it? The guy reaches for a tatty reference book and looks up the price of a new Volvo alternator. He sucks his teeth and says “it’s £415 in here but these are 2009 prices, so expect to pay more, plus three or four hours labour…plus VAT..” So I says “I’m not going to get much change out of £800, am I?” “Nope..” I thank him and think bugger off, I’m not paying for your winter holiday this year and I go buy a Hayes manual for £20. I study that for a while and read lots on this forum and Youtube and think bugger this, so..

1. First stop, eBay, new alternator £110 and £15 Express P&P from

thestartermotoralternatorco.ltd

Ordered on Tuesday, was extremely surprised to see it on my office desk when I came back from lunch on Wednesday. I can only assume they use Star Trek Transporters. BTW they are heavy buggers, Volvo hasn’t discovered the merits of aluminium yet!

HURRAH HURRAH!

There are other companies listed here and on eBay and I'm sure they are just as excellent but I marked them as Would Trade With Again (definitely!)

2. So, booked this Thursday off and of course it’s the coldest day of the year so far. Bugger! However, check engine compartment to disconnect positive lead on battery.. scratches head..where the hell is the battery.. read Hayes manual…ohhhh in the boot under the floor.. Lifts the nice organised boot floor and there it is, removed the few nuts (12mm I think) holding the battery holder and undid the positive nut (10mm I think)

3. Next, remove the auxiliary drive belt. According to here and Youtube one uses a 14mm ratchet spanner on the automatic tensioner pulley and pushes towards the rear of the car, I did that a few times and thought that’s weird, I’m sure I’m undoing the pulley and in fear of it popping off I pulled the spanner clockwise towards me - and as if by magic the pulley eased back, I had to pull the spanner to almost horizontal towards me to release the belt tension enough to get the belt off the top pulley but it’s manageable.

Red Arrow = The Tensioner, turn clockwise..Doh!

4. Then it’s remove the Power Steering Pump. I’ve read here and elsewhere that guys have drained the system and removed it completely, along with the AirCon, Wheel etc...that seems a lot of extra work for nothing, at no point did I clamp tubes or drain anything, I gently and carefully removed it and placed it on top of it’s own bracket out of the way.


Bottom Arrow = old alternator
Middle Arrow = Tensioner Pulley
top Arrow = Water pipe, it is reasonable flexible and I could gently move the Power Steering pump around it and place the pump on top of it's own mount bracket

There are four 12mm (I think) bolts to be removed, I used an open ended thin spanner coming in from the side and slowly undid them but then they worked up against the pulley. I though, crap, so I have to remove the pulley and tried pulling it off, then I thought I’m going to have to buy a Pulley Puller..bugger.

I’m so stupid. I suddenly realised after 20 minutes of scratching my head that you can actually use a socket on the bolts THROUGH the holes in the pulley..DOH!!!!



I WISH I had just looked for a moment from the side!

So, three long bolts removed and one short one that keeps the thin metal bracket insitu. I simply and gently removed the water pipe from the thin metal bracket and bent the bracket up and out of the way.



Red Arrow = Push gently in that direction to allow working room.

5. Next I’m looking at the old alternator, it’s held by one upper bolt to the top – a mirror and torch comes in handy here just to see what you are doing but use your fingers to feel the head of the bolt and shove a 12mm spanner in there and remove it. The lower alternator flange is clamped between the engine and AirCon unit, so completely remove the top two bolts of the AirCon and in theory the alternator should pop out. No, it doesn’t, you have to slightly loosen the bottom two AirCon bolts as well…just loosen and then the alternator comes free, do not remove the bottom bolts completely, just loosen them a tad and you will feel the alternator come loose

Red Arrows = Remove these two long bolts completely but you only need to loosen slightly the two lower AirCon bolts

6. Then remove the plastic cover over the alternator positive terminal, it just pulls off and undo the nut, and pull off the other terminal, mine was v tight and I had to pull quite hard. With those removed you can carefully remove the old alternator, don’t drop it on your toes, it weighs a ton.

Left Arrow = ?Sensor wire, pulls directly off with some elbow grease
Right Arrow = Electric terminal cover, pull plastic cover from bottom and it lifts off

7. Then it’s mostly a reverse procedure, slide the new alternator insitu and slide in the top bolt, I had to wiggle it a bit to get the retaining bolt in the right place and then reinsert the two long AirCon bolts, it’s a good idea not to tighten the top bolt until the bottom two are in place with a little bit of wiggling too. Once you are happy with the position then tighten the three bolts and tighten the AirCon bottom bolts. Next reconnect the electrical wires and replace the cover, it just snaps back on.

Yeahhh!

8. Then gently put the Power Steering pump back, the three long bolts and then the bolt holing the water bracket. The important thing here when it comes to the Power Steering pump is that as long as you are gentle and careful then you don’t need to do anything major like draining it.

9. Then it’s refit the auxiliary belt. Some forums and Youtube say remove wheel and lift side cover to allow access to crankshaft pulley...nahhh too much hard work but If you happen to have a child with super long and super thin arms or friends with Mr Fantastic from the Fantastic Four then this would be a good time to use him. I have big fat fingers, spatula hands and a thick coat on, there is not a lot of room to get your fingers in there but with a bit of patience and some cursing it can be done, took a few goes but getting the belt on all the wheels was eventually done and twisting the Tensioner Pulley all the way down to give as much leeway as possible let me slip the belt over the Power Steering pulley.

10. Then it’s check the belt, make sure it’s on the correct way. The Hayes manual is completely wrong here, that threw me, it has the wrong illustration for a 2.4 engine, according to the Hayes manual there are six pulleys to go around and yes, in the diesel engine I think there may be six or on a bigger engine but on my 2.4 petrol there are only five.

11. Then reconnect the battery, check everything again and pray to whatever God you worship and turn the key. The car started right away and the warning light was gone, the engine ran smoothly and I took it for a test run with no problems. Hurrah! Three hours work saved me £700 and no winter holiday for Mr Mechanic down the road.


Things you should know;
I'm not a mechanic, I'm a computer geek so my car may fall apart like a clown car on next drive but it worked for me.
I used minimal tools, 10 to 14mm sockets, a racket spanner, a thermos of hot tea, this is by far the easiest car I’ve ever had to work on and it makes me think I’ll be sticking with Volvos the rest of my life.
Reading on this forum it seems that 99 out of 100 times it's actually the Voltage regulator that is faulty rather than the alternator but it's extremely difficult to get the voltage regulator off without removing the alternator and whilst it's out you might as well just replace the whole damn thing, the prices for Voltage Regulators are not much less than the alternator - at least on ebay
I could have bought a second hand used alternator for £30 but that's just a personal decision, at least I know this one is definitely working.
If you are doing some research and come across American vids on Youtube or American forums they call the auxiliary belt a serpentine belt (because it snakes all over the place) and they usually refer to the alternator as a generator, damn them and their mangling of Ingrish.
This is a walkthrough for my car, a Volvo S80 2.4 petrol Automatic, I think it’s pretty similar across the range but this worked for my car, your mileage may vary.
I took three hours, I reckon if I had to do it again without the Doh! moments then it would take under two hours.

Note to mods, apologies if this is in the wrong place, please feel free to edit and move to correct section and thanks for fantastic forum.

[mikealder]

Excellent write up, it's never that easy to remember to take pictures when you are out working on the car so an illustated guide is even better, saving £700 was well worth the effort - Mike

[itguy]

I did this exact same job on my v70 about a month ago - did it almost exactly as you described.

It's so satisfying to do it yourself too

[Bernard46]

I just wish I had seen this 12 months ago when my then 11 year old S80's alternator went. It must have cost me £500 at the local garage to get it fixed with a genuine Volvo part (this was a local garage not a Volvo dealer). I'd also like to say thanks for the absolutely first class writeup - its a classic. By the way the url for this companies web site is www.startermotor-alternator.co.uk which is a little bit easier to find - you can go from the web site to their eBay shop in one click.

[minerva1961]

Thanks for that Bernard, I tried editing the original entry but don't seem to be able to after a few days. Cheers anyway

[julieh]

First of all, Thank You! minerva 1961 for the excellent post. I really appreciated it because I too bought the Haynes manual when I bought my 12 year old S80 geartronic last year. It hasn't been a lot of help, but you have.

Im not sure this post is in the right place, but I wanted to thank you at the same time, so maybe somebody could move this elsewhere if it needs it.

When I'd finally got the alternator off I decided to change the auxilliary and drive belts as the auxilliary looked in a sad way. Here in france its possible to buy a kit containing whats necessary for the drive belt replacement and this includes the water pump. Do I really need to change the water pump? And, if so, can anybody give me some help on this as the Haynes manual seems pretty useless. Also, do I have to take the lowest pulley wheel off to take the auxilliary belt off? There is no mention of this in the Haynes, but I can't see how to do it without.

Thanks for any help anybody can give!

[Rover Saloon]

Worth bearing in mind that the alternator voltage regulator is a replacable part and often is the cause of charging problems. It is important to get the correct regulator for the alternator concerned so worth removing the old on for relevent ref. numbers. It is a matter of a couple of small bolts and the replacement includes new carbon brushes. So for £20 you can often sort the problem out and avoid Volvo's absurd alternator prices. I did mine a couple of years ago and have runa further 20k with not a hint of any further trouble.

[julieh]

Thanks for that idea. I already have a replacement from the scrappies, but had doubts about it after going to all this trouble - wouldn't like to have to do it all over again!

[ShadeTek]

I replaced my regulator pack for £38 from eBay. It still has a bit of a shimmer on the lights at low revs but the squeeling at idle has now gone.

[Andy Northface]

Excellent write up mate.....Am I alone in requesting this as a sticky?