After a fun weekend at the beach I get home and my friend tries to open up his car with the key fob and no dice, he killed the battery somehow over the last couple days and the alternator is on its way out anyway. I charged up the battery and brought it back to life but the stock alternator still needs to be changed, it looks like a pita job too. Down on the back side of a big V6 right by the firewall, c'mon euro ford designs should be smarter than this E36 M3. Anyway, how bad of a job is this and would you attempt it for say $80? I've got two days off and I think I can get the part tomorrow if I need to.
moxnix
New Reader
8/12/08 6:08 a.m.
Hereis a how to from contour.org. It is a big pain to replace but it is expensive if you have the dealership do it :(
They suck to do. I'm not sure if I'd do it for $80. If it was a really good friend I would, but other than that I'm not sure.
I did my aunts contour for free. It looks like more of a pain than it is. Took me about 2 hours I believe.
That's one of the biggest pita's I can remember. Did a cougar which is similar, wanted to kill myself halfway through. You do a lot of the work from below, but not all of it. If you can see the bolt you're after, you can't reach it. And vise-versa.
Huge pain. The ticket is to get the car way up in the air, and then take off both front wheels - one bolt is only accessible with 4 feet of extensions and swivels, coming all the way from the driver's side wheelwell.
this is part of why i love my geo so much. five minute job, max
