Editing Toyota maintenance (section)

===Alternator fails [[User:Rday|Rday]] 21:43, 27 April 2009 (UTC)===
The red dashboard light behind the battery and brake lit up on the way home from work last Friday (4/24/09).
Testing the volts at the battery with the car off found 12.4 and with the car running it was 11.0.  So the alternator is bad.  John considered just replacing the diode, but given a rebuilt alternator is about $100, it seemed reasonable to just replace the whole thing.

Getting the old part off was pretty easy except for the the following details:
*I had to remember that there is a squeeze latch that holds the large plug into the alternator.  Comes off easy if you press in the right place.
*The bolt holding the hinge side of the alternator was too tight to remove with a flat wrench that bites into your hand.  Had to use a round-handle socket wrench with a rag and glove and apply lots of force.

Replaced alternator with a rebuilt part with a two-year warranty from Carquest parts.