online toyota parts store that will ship to Canada?

That's why I don't blindly use dealer service departments. For items like alternators, radiators, calipers, etc, it's NAPA new or rebuilts for me. Competitive prices and no problems so far.

Check out NAPA Canada for their reman with a good warranty, or a local store that sells Bosch new alternators (lifetime warranty, 2 year road- side assistance). Just don't buy a blue-light-special reman like that Toyota dealer seems to be doing.

Bosch new alternators look good too, but I've gotten used to NAPA rebuilt alternators because of the fast turnaround when you need one.

For parts shipped to Canada, also check out

Thanks for the tip. I just ordered a reman'd Denso 90A from them for US$235.03 including tax and duty. There will probably be a brokerage charge but even with that the price is competitive. Denso seems to repack the bearing on their reman'd units; I bet the local reman outfit my dealer uses didn't do that.

Now here's to hoping the bearing doesn't self destruct before the replacement arrives!

Interestingly, the management team at rockauto are all electrical engineers, so they're clearly trustworthy! :)

And they shipped it this morning by 11 AM, 12 hours after my order!

Yeah, rockauto.com is pretty good. Great prices for one thing and fast turnaround.

The Denso alternator should work fine, I do like their alternators and AC compressors, just make sure the one you get has a pulley or you'll have to move the old one on there.

The Denso I just looked up on rockauto.com says "5S pulley" and "may not have pulley" on the same line. Not sure what that meant.

The Denso alternator, refurbished in the USA, turned out to be a real gem. It looked brand new, with polished metal and freshly painted pulley.

The only snag I ran into was that the electrical plug wouldn't come out of its socket. It had been in its home since 1999 and didn't want to leave. It eventually came out after I heated it with a hair dryer to make the plastic a bit more pliable (it was -6 C when I was doing the work) and I had dismounted the alternator to get better leverage.

Altogether, it was a 1/2 hour job that I think anyone could do. Total savings over the same job that I had paid the dealer to do last year: $600-260=$340 .

There was no duty or brokerage fee bringing it into Canada with FedEx, but I did have to pay GST and PST on the cost of the alternator when it arrived. (Rock Auto put the price on the packing slip - the delivery man said that if they hadn't done that I probably wouldn't have paid anything.)

Oope, it hadn't been in since 1999, the alternator was replaced last year in June. It was still pretty stuck though.