Maybe the VSC was confused by all four free-wheeling. Don't know.

Can't imagine the light wouldn't go off by itself eventually on its own, if that were the cause.

You might check fuses in case one got blown during your repair.

 

Did you try disconnecting the battery again to reset the computer? Maybe that will clear the VSC light

What do you recomend we do if we ever need to replace the alernator...spend a few more bucks and pay somebody else to do it !

 

Problem Solved

Thanks for the input guys.

I did exactly what fl100 suggested. Disconnected the battery when it was on the ground and when I reconnected the light was gone.

Incidentally I also had a code P0051 which is the air fuel sensor. When I rechecked it had become disconnected when I disconnected the rad hose from the radiator. This was weird because it is one of those positive click connectors that you can't just pull apart and I definitely did not deliberately disconnect it.

Anyway now I have no codes and no warning lights so I guess the job is finally complete.

Re DIY alternator replacement I would recommend doing it yourself because it is so expensive to have the dealer do it. In my case $750 for a new alternator or $450 for a reman unit plus 3.5 hours of time @ 120 per hour. You are talking $1,170 plus 13 % tax for the new one! Oh BTW I was told it would be a 2 week wait for the part becasue there weren't any new or reman units in the country. Instead I found a reman unit at an independent for $300.00 plus $36.00 for replacement coolant.

This job is doable providing you have very clear and precise instructions on how to do it. There weren't any available on this forum or anywhere else on the web. I got instructions from ALLDATA online manual for which I subscribe. However I find with them they always tell you to almost disassemble the entire car to do any job, when I have found there are alwayss shortcuts if you think it through. For example ALLDATA tells you to remove the rad, which in a dealer shop environment may make sense so some careless mechanic doesn't ding the rad doing the job. For a DIYer though you are much more careful because its your own vehicle. As it turns out you just have to remove the fan shroud which is much less work. As long as you are careful you have plenty of room to pull the alternator with just the Fan shroud gone.

The ALLDATA manual also is not very clear about one of the alternator brackets which as it turns out is hidden under the No 2 bank exhaust manifold heat shield. I lost at least an hour trying to figure that out.

Oh BTW there is no Haynes manual for the 2'nd Gen Highlander or I would have bought that.

I also used a combination of wrenches to deal with the belt tensioner. So the long answer is that had someone been able to lead me through it it would have been a reasonable 3 - 4 hour job. As it was I lost a lot of time trying to figure it out with what information I had available.

Much as I love my HL it is a tuner and DIY nightmare. I guess that is because the typical HL owner wouldn't dream of getting grease under their nails.

Anyway I have had lots of good info here so if I can pay it forward I am happy to do so!

 

I'm not sure which alternator you have (since there are 3 different ones), but I had a reman Denso 150A alt installed for ~$465 by a local toyota shop (not dealer, independent shop). It is a pain to get around there though, I took a look, but I didn't have time to actually replace it myself.

Good to hear the battery trick worked. Thats my get out of jail free card every-time I goof :lol:

 

Higher Costs in Canada

Hey Sweeneyp,

We get screwed over in Canada on all things automotive. The Honda Accords we make here in Ontario are $5 - 10 grand cheaper in Buffalo. But at least we don't have to pay for most healthcare. I guess thats a tradeoff I'll accept but it really pisses me off when I just know that I am getting shafted and paying way more than my US friends. I do buy a lot of stuff when I am in the US which I am very often since that is my sales territory. In this case though I didn't have time to order parts and wait for delivery.