Greetings fellow Audi owners. In search of the holy grail of articles regarding alternator removal, I have been scanning countless forums and decided this is the one I should register in and ask my question.

My girlfriend's car is a 1999 A4 w/the 1.8T engine. She's had it for 6 mos. and just the other day she was driving when interior lights went crazy and the car grew sluggish - eventually it wouldn't go any further and then died. Clicking was all she got when trying to re-start it. I pulled the battery, had it tested, and the guy said it was bad so there goes $90 on a battery (most expensive battery I've ever bought). I did a test drive that night to see if things were fine and everything seemed ok. Today she was on her way to work when the symptoms started up again and she barely made it back home to have it die on her again. I am pretty sure it's the alternator now, and I managed to get it nearly all the way out, but the bottom bolt is hitting the backside of the fan clutch. I have been reading various articles (none specifically on alternator removal), and it seems the only way I'll have enough room to pull the bolt completely out, is if I remove the front end of the car! Please please tell me there is another way. She needs the car for work and I really don't feel like getting up an hour earlier to drop her off at work anymore lol.

HELP!

 

I did it on my 99 wthout removing the front end..i remember the bottom bold being a pain in the *** but i did remove it, I think i droped it down and to get it out removed the throttle body cable and removed the throttle body hose, I also remember breaking the tab on the tensioner when i went to put it back on so be carefull its a pain but you should be able to do it..

 

Hi JohnnyBravoA4, when you say 'dropped it down' which part did you drop down? I have tried jiggling, wiggling, and every other type of -iggling with that alternator and can't seem to move that bottom bolt past the fan clutch. I already have the throttle body hose removed. Thanks for your response! If you have any pics of what you did, please submit them.

 

*bump*

 

Try taking off the entire throttle body. That should give you all the room you need.

 

How would that help when the throttle body isn't near that bottom bolt?

 

Well I got the alternator out. I decided to shear the bottom bolt and planned on replacing it with another aftermarket (longer so I could just run it through the whole and secure it with some washers and a nut), however my shearing caused the housing to break around the bolt hole so I can't get it rebuilt What's worse, is that's not the original (big surprise) and the numbers off of it are of no use to me to try and figure out which alternator I should buy. All I saw stamped on the housing was Valeo VL2 (the stickers on there were reman codes).

Anyone have an idea which alternator I'm looking for and the cheapest place online to get it? Once again it's a 1999 A4 Quattro 1.8T. I don't have a clue what chassis it is.

 

hey man, i'm currently working through the same problem, but due to shorted field coils, except with my car. i've been looking around to find a cheap alternator too, and basically all i've got is to buy reman from autozone or oreilly's. advanced has them, or here in stl at least there's a place called reliance, and they've got everything.
but as far as alternators themselves go, it's a bosch 120amp (14V) alternator that comes stock. the 1999 is a b5 chassis, like mine, (but mine's a 1999.5). the stickers i've got show numbers of ---> 0-124-515-058-806 and the 806 is circled so that must be important right?

 

nvm....did not realize how old this post is.... hope you're not still working on it.