How do you replace the alternator on a Skoda felicia 1998 and where do the wires go?

Answer 1

The alternator on my wife's Skoda Fellatio has just failed as well so I'm shopping round to order a new one.

Having had just a cursory look under the bonnet it all looks pretty straight-forward. There's a thin wire going to a plug that is, at a guess, the charging indicator. There's a thick wire that comes off of a stud and which goes directly to the positive side of the battery. This is presumably the main feed from the alternator. No other wires. Nice and simple.

Oh, and just three nuts/bolts holding the alternator in position. Should be a half-hour job to change one.

Cheers Gary

If its a diesel with Power Steering you are in for a shock, you need to take out the radiator to give clearance, take off the belt tensioner pulley wheel to withdraw one of the two bolts, (not three). The pulley bolt is left hand thread and is lifted clear to slacken the belt for removal by getting a spanner on it and lifting. Not as easy as it sounds, it has a strong spring and is a bit fiddly, once the belt is off you can then turn the bolt the other way to remove it and the pulley wheel. removing the left hand headlight helps a lot as you can work through the hole that is left. best to find a scrap yard that still lets you take bits off and do it there first on someone else's car. Its not as bad as it sounds but is not the twenty minute job I thought it would be. Good luck, Steve

If its a petrol with power steering and an MPI engine then you are in for an even bigger shock as I have only just discovered. Removing this type of alternator requires a special tool. Without the special tool IT CANNOT BE REMOVED.

The procedure is to undo the nut which holds the belt retentioning roller to the engine mounting. Sure, both upper and lower bolts can be removed however, without releasing the tension from the belt the alternator can neither be moved nor removed.

The problem exists due to the positioning of the alternator and the belt retentioning roller - there is only 1/2-inch clearance between the bolt-end of the roller and the wheel-arch.

The tool is not available for public use. I have spoken to Skoda who have confirmed this. Even if you could buy the tool it would cost somewhere between £40 - £70 (confirmed by Ashley Down Motors, Bristol, UK).

If you could get the car over to a garage who has the tool then you might be able to persuade them to undo the belt retentioning roller nut so that you can fit the alternator yourself on the roadside - although, they might not be happy about this so phone them first. It may also mean offering a token payment of say £10 or so.

Answer 2

Hi, In case anyone is referring to this in the future I have just replaced the alternator on my 1.3 petrol 1999 Felicia Estate Pacific (V reg, 136M engine) as follows. 1. Disconnect battery and alternator electrical connections. 2. Remove the ignition coil unit -fixed by two allen keys on the underside) and rest it in the engine compartment. 3. Remove the bracket which the coil unit is attached to - from memory I think that I also had to remove two of the spark plugs. 4. Undo & remove the top & bottom bolts holding the alternator in situ. 5. Working underneath the car ( I did it with the a jack under the offside front cill jacking point, handbrake firmly on & a SECONDARY BEARER under the car) take a 15mm open ended spanner (I used a standard 15 x 13mm OE) and engage the centre nut on the tensioner pulley-this is located directly under the alternator pulley and can only be accessed from below due to lack of space between it and the inner bodywork. (it may be possible to access from above but would need a special tool). Turn the nut CLOCKWISE ( after reading another post I was trying to turn it the other way before I had an epiphany & it worked) to take tension off the belt whist an assistant working above manouvres it off the alternator pulley. Make sure that for the time being you keep the belt in situ around the other five pulleys/rollers or alternatively make a plan of it's route before removal. 6. The old alternator should then be able to be lifted out. 7. To refit, bolt the new unit in position & reconnect the two cables. From underneath, carefully take the belt off the power steering pulley ( the one at the bottom front of the engine directly below the tensioner). 8. Use the 'slack' created to locate the belt on the new alternator pulley above. 9. Working underneath the car again take tension off the belt as before but have a loop of wire (one insulated strand of some electrical T & E cable is ideal) over the unused (in my case 13mm) jaw of the spanner so that an assistant working above can keep the tension off by pulling. 10. This should allow the person below to let go of the spanner and ease the belt onto the bottom pulley-a blunt knife may help to lever it on. 11. Once you are satified that the belt is correctly located on all pulleys release the wire & the tensioner will resume it's position. 12. Refit spark plugs/coil bracket & coil pack, refit battery terminal , remove jack and support & test