For the most part.. installing the millenia alternator was pretty much a bolt in.. and the wiring really couldnt be any simpler. While inspecting the original alternator wiring.. I discovered a pretty big amount of corrosion on the signal wire and the lamp wire (I will explain how to tell them apart) Here in this first pic is the original signal wire.. hard to see in this pic.. but you can see the green corrosion inside the wire insulation and you can see how the copper strands of the wire are all dark and even kinda sticky.
This corrosion on the signal wire can be a huge contributor to the headlight dimming issue so many of us have. So replacing corroded wires is definately a good idea. It is a bit annoying and timing consuming.. but its just a matter of removing the electrical tape wrap around the wiring harness.. tracing the wires to the fuse block.. cutting.. soldering.. heat shrink... and then rewrap the harness.
So how do we tell which wires are which? Well check out this next pic...
In the middle of that red square is a little plug diagram.. same shape as the alternator wiring harness plug.. the notch in the diagram indicates the part you squeeze to release the plug from the alternator. The wires are indicated with a 'S' and a 'L' S= Signal and L= Lamp. The Signal wire has the job of sensing information from the ECU. The ECU monitors the power needs of the car and reports to the Alternator via the signal wire on when to ramp up or down the power output of the alternator. So a corroded signal wire can cause delays on when the alternator gets the signal to power up.. like when you step on the brakes when your headlights are on (Man I hate that LOL) So if we apply the info from that diagram on the side of the alternator to the original plug..
We can see that the white wire with the black stripe is the Lamp wire and the white wire with the green stripe is the Signal wire.
Now the millenia plug is a bit different.. but the Alternator still has a little diagram on the side of it indicating which wire is which. Easy to follow... however I didnt take a pic of it before I installed the alternator.. So you will have to take my word for it that the colors mean what I say they do. But when you do this yourself.. you will be able to see the diagram so you dont have to worry about putting a wire where it shouldnt be
Now the Millenia plug has 3 wires.. It also has S & a L.. but it has a one that is marked as a IG. Now the S & L wires are pretty simple.. S goes to the white wire with the green stripe and the L goes to the white wire with the black stripe. The IG wire needs to go to a switched +12v source. If your wiring is intact you can always hook up your battery.. turn your key to the run position.. and find a hot 12v in the fuse block that you can tap into. My wiring wasnt intact at the time I did this.. so I cheated a bit and just ran a wire into the interior and tapped the + cigarette wire. Its a known switched +12v so it should be fine.Now in this pic of the millenia alternator plug...
The Red wire is the L or Lamp wire.. The Green wire is the IG or Switched +12v wire and the Black wire is the Signal wire. Here is a pic of the plug spliced into the wiring harness, heat shrinked on each wire.. the white arrows pointing to the wires I spliced.
Now heatshrink all 3 wires together and then rewrap the wiring harness.. here is a pic as I started to rewrap the harness.
Finally.. once you have rewrapped your entire wiring harness.. fit it back into the harness pathway or you can create your own pathway if you want.. Depends on how custom you plan to go and what other things you are doing. Here is a final pic of my engine bay after the wiring harness is done and routed.
Arrow 1 is the positive output from the Alternator.. I recommend adding a power cable from this post leading directly to the + terminal of the battery. For whatever reason.. the harness has the power directed into the fuse block and then out from there before it goes to the battery. Inefficient in my opinion. The battery should be able to get power directly from the alternator.. this will help keep it charged better at low idle speeds.
Arrow 2 shows the path I followed with the additional power cable and how I used zip ties to secure it to the original wiring harness.
Arrow 3 shows where my power distribution block will be mounted and where the battery cable comes into the engine bay from the firewall.
So this should wrap up any wiring issues for this mod. You dont have to buy a millenia alternator bracket either to be able to mount the alternator. But I will cover that in part 2. Cheers
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