crxaddikt

car is 90 crx si with 234,000 miles,


seems exactly like symptoms for an alternator going bad,

i noticed battery light on dash within last couple days, and sometimes flickered a little but mostly was a solid battery light, but sunday night i was driving home from work and car drove fine except headlights seemed slightly less bright but not that noticeable, but after i got off the highway and onto a 35 mph road with more stoplights, i noticed the headlights and lights on the gauge cluster were slowly getting dimmer, and i started getting worried cause i was only 5 min away from getting home, and when i entered my neighborhood going down the street towards my place, it seemed like it was losing power too, so i was barely pressing the gas and stuff to just try to barely make it home, and luckily i made it home and the car just stalled right near my place, and right before, the headlights and gauges got really dim where it was like you turn a dimmer light dial all the way towards the off position. and it did'nt start up afterward at all.


my battery is brand new, a duralast which i got a month ago, connections are all good and grounds too


the alternator i have i bought in 2007 (rebuilt from autozone i think),


and i did realise i was missing the long alternator through bolt during the last time my car was being worked on (when mechanic was putting new timing belt on), and he just said to jam a long allen wrench (which he had), in the hole and should be fine as long as it holds the tension for the belt, so i did that, and seemed fine but just temporarily until i put the long bolt and nut in.

and so first thing i thought after car stalled was that that allen wrench thing came out, causing the alt belt to come off or just get loose, but i checked and the belt was still on pretty good, but just had a little play in it, like if you wiggle it, you can wiggle it 1/4"-1/2" maybe up and down, so first thing i need to do is put that bolt and nut in for the thru bolt and tighten the belt again, and get alternator tested.

what would be the average life of an alternator usually ? 5 yrs ? 7 yrs ? cause if i got that one in 2007, then it would make it about 6 yrs old, so could it just be its time already ?


just wanted peoples opinions on what it sounds like to them ?

probowler2286

Sounds like an alternator, check your connections, check your voltage (positive battery terminal to body should be about 14 volts.) Go to autozone or advance, and they should have your purchase on the computer to check for warranty since most of them have LLT warranties, might not even cost you anything. While you're there, pick up a bolt for the bottom. Running for 5+ yrs on a temp fix like that not a good idea at all, if you can wiggle it by hand, just imagine what the engine and road bumps are doing to it...(I would leave that little detail out when you get to Autozone)

If they don't have a bolt, any local junkyard should have one

crxaddikt

i don't have any device to check voltage with unfortunately but i should invest in one later,

and i did'nt have that allen wrench in there for 5 yrs, its only been like that a month about, and i already bought the long through bolt and nut, its not the one from honda but i got it at elliott's hardware store, but it was the exact size as the one from honda, so should be fine. thats the first thing is put that bolt in and tighten belt again,



i wanted to mention this also, i have had a different problem previous to this one, and i'm wondering if it could have something to do with the other problem also maybe ?,

the other problem i've had within last month is that it takes several attempts of turning the key til it finally starts the car, like you turn the key 6 times or so and it makes a "click" sound only and no crank or anything else, and eventually it always starts finally, like on the 7th try (for example), and you hear the starter like normal, but other times when it finally starts, the starter has a sound like its turning in slow motion, but then comes to life suddenly,

it starts if you have someone in the car turning the ignition key to the "on" position, while another person touches a wire from the positive battery terminal to the flat spade terminal on the starter,

and the mechanic i know says i probably need to get my starter rebuilt,

its the original OEM starter that came on the car and i just had it completely rebuilt like new from good shop in 2008, but he thinks that something might of got "burnt" or the selenoid is bad or something, maybe happened during when it was being worked on recently. . ..


so i was just thinking how the signal path from the positive battery terminal to the body has to do with sending the signal to the starter to "activate" it, but also has something to do with the alternator too ? so is there a chance something such as the positive battery cable or something can just be bad and causing both of these problems ???

1991civiclx13

I had a similar problem when tring to start my civic, changed the contact's in the starter and it fixed the issue

crxaddikt

so would you think the headlight & gauge lights dimming / car stalling out problem is a totally seperate problem, and not related in any way to my "takes several times to start" problem ??

like not related in any way ? such as positive battery cable wire ? or something ??

and remember battery is brand new,



a year ago my head unit was stolen out of my car, and theres some frayed, exposed wires where the head unit used to go, and i accidentally touched two of them together the other week, and it made a spark and some smoke real quick, and afterward i noticed my dash clock was'nt working or the dome light, and then i checked the fuses and found the 15amp fuse for the clock & dome light was blown, and i'm pretty sure touching those wires blew it, cause it just was like that right after doing that.

the reason i mentioned that is just to make sure that had nothing to do with my current problem ? like is there any fuses that have anything to do with the alternator ??? that i should check ?

KINGVEM^^ED6

iTrader: (1)

Same thing happend to me bad alternator brah

And the non starting thing is a different issue

Remove alternator n starter n take both to autozone n have them tested!!

netfreak

The blown fuse thing shouldn't cause any other issues.. The purpose of the fuse is to protect the rest of your electronics from exactly what happened to you (short circuit)

sxysweed

AutoZone can test starers?

But seriously, pull the alternator and clean up all the connections. Pulling the alternater isn't that time consuming and is free.

KINGVEM^^ED6

iTrader: (1)

Yup they can test starters

crxaddikt

its all good now, the first thing i did was put the alternator through bolt and a nut so it was secure, and took that long allen wrench that was jammed in there temporarily for the last couple weeks (since guy worked on my car, and it was his idea since i was missing the alt thru bolt), then i re-tightened the alt. belt, using a pry bar to push the alt. forward while i tightened the adjusting nut to hold the tension,

next thing was try to start just to see, but just like i thought, the battery was drained too much, and i checked some other things just like connections and stuff,

next thing i wanted to try was to jump-start it, cause sometimes if a battery is drained, it still has just enough juice to be able to get jumped and then let it run and it sort of charges up a little, but i did'nt have anyone around to help me jump it and i did'nt want to knock on some neighbors door to bother them and most of my friends were at work or too far, so since i was sick of being in that situation several different times, i thought it would be a good investment to buy one of those portable jump-starters, so i could just be able to jump-start it myself anytime i wanted, and have with me in case i got stranded etc. .., so i rode my bike to autozone (which is about 10 min ride), and i bought one of those and a volt-meter,

then got home and i hooked the jump-starter thing up and i gave it several tries, trying to start it, and it sounded like a really slow motion, distant weak attempt at it barely cranking but did'nt have enough power to get it to turn over, so the battery was just too drained,

and i then rode my bike back to autozone with the battery in a backpack, (i bought that battery just 3-4 weeks ago, and it was just drained cause of the alternator thing with the lights dimming and stuff probably,

so i dropped the battery off to get charged up, and he said it would be an hour to an hour and a half, and i came back later, and he said "your battery is'nt able to hold a charge" ?, and that it had a "bad CEL"?, and he said might of done that cause the alternator, but he said "i'll tell you what, i'm just going to give you a brand new battery, even know i don't supposed to", cause they were closing in 10 mins and he just wanted to get out of there i think, and i got the new one,

so i got home, put the new battery in, and i read how to use a volt-meter since it was first time using one, and i went out and hooked and tested the alternator and battery, hooking it up first with car off and it said 12.8, and then i tried starting it, and it started on the first try which i did'nt expect, and then i saw the voltmeter go up to 13.8 and then up more to 14.8 or higher and it was'nt dropping so that was a good sign that the alt was looking to be fine, and then put headlights and it just dropped a tiny bit which it said it would, but read like it supposed to,

and i left it running and battery light was off, and it was running without stalling or anything, and i was happy the alternator was good and that all that happened was the belt being too loose and having allen wrench holding tension, plus caused the alt to be able to move back and forth cause was'nt holding it secure enough, and not sure if the battery having bad CEL was just cause i bought it already "bad" ? or if the alt caused something to it ??,

now i got that out of the way, sucks cause wasted 2 days i had off messing with that crap which would'nt of happened if i did'nt procrastinate on removing the allen wrench and putting the proper alt through bolt and nut in there and tighten the belt more !!,