The alternator pulley appears to be slipping (have no idea why one needs a "clutch" in an alternator pulley...) - I base this on the fact that the idiot message on the dash is intermittent. So I checked the dealer - they want almost $400 to put in a new pulley.

Dealer wants almost $700 for a new alternator, but I found one for $425. So here's the question:

Since the car has over 120K miles on it, should I go ahead and replace the complete alternator? (myself) Or should I get a new pulley and a new brush/reg kit and do it that way? (That's about $200 non-dealer sources)

My main concern is putting $200 into this alternator and then having the bearings in it go bad...

Also, are there any tricks to swapping the alternator? Any other parts that need to be removed? It looks crowded down there and the job needs to be deon from underneath. One of the rad hoses looks like it could cause problems.

Any advice and/or removal instructions would be appreciated.

thx

Andy