Skip to main content

Denso alternator rebuilt by Denso!

The previous owner of my previa did an awesome job of keep record, I mean it was something I never had experience with older cars.

But there was never a receipt for alternator change or starter change. Both are currently functioning properly and no issues.

Since I've been itching to get things changed out, preventative maint mentality, I decided to go with these parts.


To be honest, I never had issues with going to the local parts stores and buying remanufactured items. The issue is, I never questioned the quality of these parts. I just assumed they were good.

After jumping on Toyotavantech, Tim who is an "OEM parts nazi" showed pictures of a reman alternator. The issues were the diodes were soldered poorly and the quality looked like crap, and eventually failed. He took it apart and took pictures. I never had this issue, but it does make me more mindful of parts. Here is the link

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?335-Alternator-woes



"If you look closely you can see several of the diode stems have desoldered themselves from the assembly. This is partly due to a low temp solder the rebuilder improperly used and partly due to the alternator being overworked (owner tried to use it to recharge a dead battery). I don't have a factory Denso diode assembly handy for pictures, but those are identifiable by a gray plastic coating Denso uses to protect from moisture. Even if your diode assembly looks good it doesn't mean it is. There are several diodes here but it only takes one to fail and you're dead in the water. Sometimes diodes short. A shorted diode will allow electricity to travel both ways. An alternator with a shorted diode will often still charge okay but will also discharge when not in use. The easiest way to test for this is before you remove the alternator. Go to the little plastic "+" box (under & slightly forward of your air intake tube) & open it up."

His mentioned that Denso remanufactured alternators were not reman by Denso, so that was the issue. So when I looked for an alternator, I went with one that was rebuilt by Denso.


Which has this seal on top!





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EGR system Clean out and Code P0401

EGR system clean and Code P0401 This is another MUST DO on the previas, especially if you are having issues and code P0401 being thrown. P0401 is "Exhaust Gas Recirculation flow insufficient detected".  Parts: - EGR intake gasket - 25628-76010 - this is on the far right side next to the exhaust. - EGR valve gasket - 25627-76010 - used for the EGR valve to the intake manifold.  -Air inlet duct gasket - 22273-76010 - this is where the air goes into the intake manifold and where   the EGR port gets plugged. 1 container of coolant I did buy a set of crow's feet and Universal joints for the Exhaust pipe. I followed Zenseeker's photo's on every single detail. If you haven't visit his website (http://zenseeker.net/Previa/PreviaMaintenance.htm), it is a treasure trove of information!!!  Zenseeker gets the credit and this would have been impossible for me to do without those pictures! **The pictures are located at the bottom of this po

I GOT A COOLBOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found out that the previa had a "cool box", which is like tiny fridge under the dash in the middle, from Toyotavantech. I have seen them only in photos and in Canadian spec previas (unsure if they were in US spec). Even our owner's manual has some mention of them. Often times, I would look at CL in Vancouver BC in hopes someone wants to sell or part a van with it. Now, I've seen a few different versions, in which I don't have the ones that are pictured below. (note, these cool box images were found on the internet). A slanted shape one  This is a cool and hot box, 3 buttons on top ------------------------------------------------------------- I've kinda looked at the cool box as a Holy Grail. 9/12/15, Saturday. After volunteering my morning at the farmer's market making boxes and putting fruits and vegetables for low income families (Phat Beets Produce!) here in Oakland, I went to go fill up gas in

EGR, IAC Valve, Throttle body, black flakes in the coolant....

Before I get into this, let me give proper thanks for the info and pictures from zenseeker.net, toyotavantech (theMan) and Uri of Previadiaries.wordpress.com These sources really put pictures and what they did out there.. so now I 'm going to jumble them all together as I am going to do these cleans soon! ---------------------------------------------- After spending a pretty penny and 2 months having the motor rebuilt. I kept reading about the black flakes in the coolant.. I mentioned this to the shop that I had my van worked on. At on point, I asked for the throttle body  and IAC valve as it was just sitting there, but got the "dont worry about it, we'll take care of it". I even showed some blogs of that covered this issue. After getting the van back... boom, check engine light and the shop ran the code. In all honesty, I was kinda upset that they did not cover this part, even after I had mentioned it.  P0401 Error Code : "Exhaust Gas Recircul