Hi ya,

New to the forum so helllo all and happy xmas eve!

We were due to travel for xmas tomorrow morning however our beloved focus has broken down today and needs a new alternator.

I have sourced one of these but as all garages are closed i have to fit this myself now or we aint going anywhere. Green flag got my wife going and she drove the car home with no battery charging so battery is probably flat now.

Anyway i've had a look under the bonnet and can see the alternator, a little buried under power steering stuff (i think) but other than that not a nightmare to get to. from looking i saw there was a belt running off alternator to what i think is the power steering pump below it and then back to the engine. there is another belt outside of this towards drivers wheel or is the the same belt just routed where i cant see it? so my questions are two fold in fact

Firstly does anyone have a procedure for changing the alternator and secondly do i need to be careful not to disturbn the belt with regard to timing etc? or is this completely unrelated?

I will have 2 hrs tops tomorrow am to get this done so ideally woulod like to know exactly what to do to avoid cross / stroppy wife as we miss xmas day at her mums.

Finally assumming my battery is flat i assume i can just jump start the car once changed the alternator been sucessfully swapped and all will be good and my wife will be full of festuive cheer again!

Many thanks for any help you can give me

Happy Xmas Ford Focus Owners Club!

Ps its hatchback with A/C 1.6 petrol 5 door

Biggest problem is the 2 belts, they are stretchy belts, normaly its cut old ones off and fit new with special tools, alternater easy enough to take off, 2 bolts and 1 nut,

Ive only ever fitted new belts.

Hopefully someone on here may have managed to refit the old belts and may advise how they did it.

Removed and refitted a few stretch belts using a small pry. Just be careful not to stab the belt or chew up the edge of the pulley.