bobjohnson

Ok, I was coming home from work, started the car, everything was working good, drove a few minutes, and rolled up to a stop light. Put the car in neutral, pressed the brake, and i notice the battery light is flickering. Not full on, but just flickering as if it had a bad connection or something. The light turns green, i put the car in gear, give it gas, and the light goes off. I come up the next stoplight, put it back in neutral, hit the brake and it does the same thing. Car doesnt feel like its going to die, none of the gauges are freaking out, stereo is still working, so i just wait, let off the brake, but the battery light keeps flickering. So finally when the light turns green, i go, put it in gear, give it gas, and the light goes out again. So when i come to the next stop light, i put it in neutral and press the brakes, the light starts to flash again, so i rev it at about 3k, and the light goes out... Then i came to the highway, drove home, and the light didnt come on again...

Now im wondering, what would cause this? Ive noticed a very, very slight dimming of the lights sometimes when i let the car idle, especially when its warming up after sitting. My old sentra did this, but much more obviously right before the alternator took a **** and killed the battery with it. So im kind of thinking its not the alternator, especially because the light was flickering instead of staying lit. Is there anything else that would make the battery light flicker?

rbwdriven

open the hood. Take a wrench and tighten up the battery cables. My civic does it every once in a blue moon.

LilJonWask

Sounds like your alternator is going bad. That light comes on when you drop below something like 13 volts. The reason why the light only came on at a stop light is because you were idling, and the slower your engine, the slower the alternator is being turned.

Eventually its going to get worse and worse, and the light will start to only go off when you are reving pretty hard, then the alternator will just die.

So just replace/rebuild the alternator now when its at your convenience.

mar778c

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LilJonWask &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like your alternator is going bad.</TD></TR></TABLE>

X2 agreed

bobjohnson

yeah i thought maybe it was the battery cables, so i checked those, theyre both tight. I had the negative cable off the other day when i was putting speakers in, so i was hoping it was that. Its not.

The only other thing i can think of (Non-alternator related) is that one of my rear speakers fell back and was resting on the wheel well. I had to fab up some brackets to fit them, but i drilled the holes too big and the top 2 screws were loose. I was hoping the bottom screws would hold it, but they didnt. Would this cause a drain on the battery? I fixed it a few minutes ago, put some bolts behind the screws, so it wont be resting on the wheel well anymore.

The only reason i dont want it to be the alternator is that im swapping the engine soon, but its not for another few weeks... I dont really want to drop 100-200 dollars on an alternator when thats almost as much as the engine im looking at buying... i have another car, so its not like while i wait ill be without a vehicle, i just like driving the crx more, plus i keep miles off my new car, as my drive to work is long. But id rather put miles on my new car rather than be stranded and miss a day of work.

But honestly, i agree, it does feel like the alternator is going bad... i just dont understand why the light only came on when i first started driving, and not after i got off the highway... if the alternator was dying, wouldnt the light come on after i got off the highway and was idling at the stoplights?

LilJonWask

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bobjohnson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
But honestly, i agree, it does feel like the alternator is going bad... i just dont understand why the light only came on when i first started driving, and not after i got off the highway... if the alternator was dying, wouldnt the light come on after i got off the highway and was idling at the stoplights?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not necessarily... There are some possibilities such as starting your car caused an intial drain on the battery putting extra stress on the battery... when you drove your high reving engine on the highway, you managed to charge your battery enough so that it was above the voltage threshold for the battery light to come on... i just pulled that out of my ***, lol, but i would bet money its the alternator.

And the alternator won't be 100-200 dollars... a new oem replacement one on ebay will prolly run you around 60-80 shipped... but i would just replace teh regulator, thats what usually goes out and that would save you money...

CRX Toad

I would not buy an alternator anywhere that I couldn't take it back in a couple minutes. The new ones are known to be bad right out of the box.

schueytenten

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Toad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would not buy an alternator anywhere that I couldn't take it back in a couple minutes. The new ones are known to be bad right out of the box. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Second that. My "lifetime" autolite alternators have lasted 13 months, and 10 months. My current one is going on 6 months. Counting down the days until I get to replace it again.

Hondaisok

Check your ground connections. I had a bad ground at the valve cover and my 91 civic sedan did that. It actually heated up and melted the wire once. Henceforth, I now put an extra ground wire on several places on the motor just to have that extra ground wire backup.

I have a ground wire going from the neg battery terminal to the screw on the distributor mount (the u shaped thing) I also have one going from my frame to the intake manifold.