i don't remember any heroics needed to get to that bottom bolt, but it might take an extra long wrench to get enough torque to break it loose. i may have used a deep 12mm socket with a 3/8 breaker bar in order to clear the WP pulley.

This is from the 2AZ manual; the 2GR FSM says it requires removal of the front tire and radiator 😱

 

GREAT information, kenny-bob! Thank you! Pulling the right front tire sounds good, I'll try that before I do the radiator, hopefully the radiator can stay where it is.

My lower bolt looks slightly different from the one in the manual you posted. Mine looks more like a straight stud with a nut screwed down on it. If pulling the wheel (with car up on a jack or ramp) gets me better access and a little more room to maneuver, I'll be a happy man.

 

Shouldn't need to go thru the wheel well for a 2AZ engine. That is for the 2GR. But you will have a good view of the belt tensioner to see how that works.

Maybe someone replaced a broken bolt with a stud?

Here is a picture of the front of the engine showing the mounting flanges for the alternator. There is an M6 stud (10mm wrench) used for the water pump.

 

When I replaced my alternator for my 2005 Camry 2AZ a few years ago, I didn't need much more than a serpentine belt tool and my tekton 3/8 socket set. Didn't need anything special or had to take off wheel well compared to changing the serpentine belt tensioner.

Might have used the serpentine belt tool with one of my sockets to get that lower bolt off.

BTW that's actually a similar mileage that my alternator died, around 180-185K miles in Nov 2021, now at 240K with no problems.

 

The alternator is an easy job IF the strut on your belt tensioner isn't seized. Even if it's not getting the belt off is hard if you don't know the trick of getting it off and back on the water pump last. Use a normal ratchet pull forward and get it off partially if you have to, then do it again.

I used a very larger breaker bar because the tensioner strut was seized. The external hex snapped off. Had to replace the tensioner. Was not fun. Have to jack up or lower the engine a bit. There's a very long bolt.

 

but could not for the life of me get a wrench on that smaller bottom bolt. Closest I can get is to round off the corners of the bolt, I try to avoid that. (An oddity: All the Youtube videos I've watched about replacing your 05 Camry, say that that bottom bolt is 12mm. But mine is 10mm. Was this car built on Mars?)

One problem is that the water pump pulley sticks up right in front of the bottom bolt. Neither open-end wrench nor box-end nor 10mm socket want to go onto the bolt straight and square. Yes, a 12mm wrench just spins freely, the bolt is NOT 12mm.

There's no way a 10mm bolt is holding the alt. You may be on the wrong bolt. That 12mm isn't very easy to see. Stick your phone down there and take a pic with the flash on, that way you can visualize exactly where it is.

 

Well, a few developments. I was indeed on the wrong bolt - a 10mm stud holding the water pump. Looked really hard under the alternator, it was the only bolt head there was. After buying a few more tools to try to get it out, finally got it out. Then pried the alternator out, yay.

Drove to three different Toyota dealers in town (65 mile round trip) to get a new stud-with-10mm-nut, they were as baffled as I was. Finally I went home, picked up the old, greasy alternator and looked at the mounts... and found that the bottom mount had a broken-off bolt with no head, jammed in it. Barely stuck out on both ends, black with grease. Hard to believe it had been in there since the car was new. But no one has ever worked on or near the alternator, including me, until now.

At least that explains why I could only see one bolt, the 10mm, under the alternator.

Persuaded the broken bolt to come out of the old alternator, with the help of Mr. Vicegrip. No Toyota dealer in town had the proper 12mm bolt, so found one at Home Depot that screwed into the new alternator correctly, got three different lengths, one of them was correct length. I PUT THE ALTERNATOR IN. Got the serpentine tensioner on it, belt was a real bitch to get on correctly, but finally got it.

And found that I couldn't get the tensioner and my socket-and-3/8"-adapter OFF the 19mm stud. Same ones that let me get the belt off in the first place. Tried everything I knew, which was clearly not enough. So loosened the belt and finally got the tensioner and its adapter/socket off the stud. Headed back to the hardware store, got a 19mm 1/2" drive 6-point socket, for which I wouldn’t need the 3/8” adapter. Headed back home feeling finally I was nearly done.

Put the new socket with NO adapter on the 19mm stud, pulled gradually more and more to lower the tensioner wheel, the wheel slowly lowered down... and then the end of the stud itself broke off.

Sigh.

So now I have a question. Now that I've broken the stud, is there anything I can possibly do? Is that stud part of the block or cyl head or......???

Do I need a new engine?

I really hope that's not the only possibility left.

 

That doesn't seem too bad if just the 19mm stud/bolt broke off. The same situation happened for this user in this video, they ended up replacing the whole tensioner instead. You don't have to replace the engine or so, but trying to use the current tensioner with a broken stud/bolt probably causes more effort on yourself instead of replacing the whole tensioner.

The annoying part is having to take off the wheel and motor mounds to jack up the engine to get enough clearance for the tensioner bolt.
How to Replace Drive Belt Tensioner - Toyota Camry (2002-2006) 2AZFE (2.4L)

 

So the 19mm hex casting of the tensioner plate snapped off? See this post for additional details, #8

Probably had been abused by the previous rocket mechanic who jammed the bolt into the alternator flange.

No need for a new engine, the tensioner plate is a separate part that mounts to the timing cover.

Search on the forum for snapped tensioner, lots of folks have done that and some have figured out how to compress the shock using a crowbar.

 

@Little-Acorn

Yes it's a common problem. The strut on mine was seized. Then broke new one. Then mastered trick. Take the belt off the water pump and put on water pump last. Use a normal ratchet, no bracket bar or cheater pipe. Go slowly. Take the belt off part way and then re apply tension if you have to, then relieve tension and remove it the rest of the way off

You have to jack up the engine up uncomfortably high. It's also possible that the motor mount is seized like mine was. Release three nuts from subframe and bolt holding hard part of PS line down, jack up engine with mount attached. Undo bolts holding exhaust to exhaust manifold before flex pipe area to not put stress on it, if yours is not already rusted out and leaking. You can overstretch the flex pipe if you don't disconnect it before jacking up the engine.

Additionally, buy a torque wrench adapter 14 mm for the stupid long bolt. You will be able to get the bolt out, but will need to jack it up even higher to torque the bolt down that holds the tensioner. It's an important bolt so I would use a torque wrench. The torque wrench adapter would keep you from jacking it up even higher.

Additionally i'd be careful with getting bolts from home depot. The bolts from Toyota are manufactured to a property specification, different then the specifications from bolts at home Depot. Would get the Toyota bolts manufactured to their spec for all important bolts.

Do you have the number that was on the head of the bolt that broke. There's a table that provides equivalency estimations to bolts you can buy at home Depot but they don't line up exactly. You would need a ME degree to understand the differences and estimate if the differences are ok or not. After spending some time trying to understand which bolts at home Depot or Lowe's I can substitute with Toyota specification bolts, I gave up... Much easier to just spend a couple bucks a bolt on the Toyota bolts, then attempting to understand stuff I'm not formally educated on.

I would also be sure to use a 19 mm 6 point socket
3/8 W = 18.03 mm
23/32 in = 18.2562 mm
18.5 mm
19 mm
3/4 in = 19.05 mm
19.5 nn
7/16 W = 20.83 mm
However I would test on your new tensioner, if you have a 3/4 in socket laying around, if it is a tighter fit than a 19 mm. It's SUPPOSED to be a 19 mm, but if it's off slightly or your sockets have very good tolerances, it's PIOSSSIBLE that 3/4 in might be more snug. I doubt it, but worth trying to avoid possibly snapping it again. Definantly wear eye protection! I broke a 19 mm socket trying this once, back when I was trying to use a very long cheater pipe, before I figured out the trick. Even if it doesn't snap on you, an extreme amount of force to relive tension is required.