Jamie Vickery

Hi All - I'm new to posting to these boards, although I have looked through them from time to time for info and appreciate all the feedback. I have a problem from hell that may have been addressed in a limited fashion in the past, but I'm looking to get fresh perspectives. I have a 2001 Acura MDX with approximately 165k miles on it. I had the transmission rebuilt last year, but other than that, it has been a fantastic vehicle except for this one recurring problem.

I began having issues with the alternator bracket breaking repeatedly. I would go anywhere from several months to a few weeks before the bracket would break again. We discovered that the problem is actually the bolt that holds the alternator to the engine block breaking, coming loose, etc., resulting in too much stress on the bracket, ultimately resulting in the break.

After this occurring numerous times, my mechanic used a helicoil (sp?) to try make the bolt more secure and minimize the stress on that bracket. Well, it broke again. After the latest breakdown, I broke down and took it to the dealer, hoping they would have a solution. They recommended that we try a time-sert, which is by my limited understanding similar to a helicoil, but supposedly more reliable and secure. Unfortunately, they are now saying that with the numerous attempts to repair my vehicle that the hole in the engine block is just too big and the time-sert is not going to be secure. Their solution: putting in a used engine at the cost of around $5k! Needless to say, it's a hard pill to swallow to imagine that my only solution for this problem that is a result of someone stripping the threads on the aluminum engine block is replacing the whole **** engine!

I'm hoping someone out here has been through something like this and might have a suggestion. I've searched the interwebs pretty thoroughly and found a few other cases with MDX's and Honda Odysseys where various solutions were suggested (including a helicoil), but as with many bulletin board threads there were not often followups to reveal what worked.

I've even thought about just having a stronger bracket fabricated (I don't know how to go about doing this) and getting them to secure the alternator as best they can with the bolt and the more robust bracket.

Thoughts? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

csmeance

have both belt tensioners been checked and made sure they are working. Are you installing the right size belt?

There shouldn't be any sort of excess strain on that bracket so you have to find the root cause. It could be a bad powers steering pump, tensioner, a/c pully, etc.

You could always have the dealership use a helicoil that's larger and use a larger bolt with a little bit of grinding. OR you could have them reattempt it with the time-sert but with a bit of epoxy added into the mix.

Jamie Vickery

Thanks for your reply. All the tensioners are good. They have been inspected and one was replaced due to a bearing going bad. The issue with the bolt that holds the alternator to the engine block is that when it is loose, it gives the alternator the ability to move and vibrate, putting more stress on the bracket. Once the bracket breaks, the alternator rotates around that bolt and of course doesn't have the tension necessary to keep the belt moving, etc.

TrackDayRdr

So nobody has thought of welding that hole full then re-tapping? As much work as that would be I can't imagine it wouldn't be cheaper by far than replacing the block.