Greetings and salutations,

Let me preface this post by divulging that while I've worked on countless Acura models, I've never had the privilege of wrenching on a CL. That is until now My girlfriend requested that I fix the alternator on her '99 CL 3.0 so clearly I had to oblige. Thankfully, the job isn't too taxing and I was finished with the whole procedure in about 3 hours. Your completion time may vary, of course

Anywhoo, here's a documentation of the procedure:

1) Remove the battery cover.

2) Disconnect the negative, then the positive battery cable.

3) Remove the front engine cover.

4) Remove the accessory drive belt by pulling back on the tensioner.

5) Remove the A/C condenser fan shroud assembly. This is done by disconnecting the fan motor connector and removing the A/C compressor
clutch wiring connector from the fan shroud.

6) Disconnect the ground cable

7) Disconnect the wiring from the alternator.

8) Remove the alternator and bracket assembly.

9) Installation is the reverse of the removal procedure. The OEM part number for the alternator is 31100-P8C-A02. The M.S.R.P. is $310.53 but I bought my gf's from acurapartswarehouse.com for $225.13. Not too shabby I suppose

Note that there is no belt tension adjustment due to the use of an automatic tensioner.

Additionally, the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) idle memory must be reset after reconnecting the battery. To do this: Start the engine and hold it at 3000 rpm until the cooling fan comes on. Then allow the engine to idle for about five minutes with all accessories OFF and with the transmission in Park or Neutral.

10) Connect the positive, then the negative battery cable.

11) Finally, install the battery cover.


Once you're finished it is obviously a wise idea to start up your CL to see if your handy work paid off