Marcelfly23

I have a 1992 Honda prelude si thats been sitting for years I swapped batteries out about 2 weeks ago and drove it 3 hours from new jersey to virginia. I got to virginia and the battery died. I figured it was an alternator problem, so I bought a new alternator and installed it, the car was running fine. One day i decide to just go for a long drive with my girl. 3 hours into our mini road trip the ABS and battery light come on and the headlights dim, the speedometer and other gauges begin to act up so now i dont know what the rpm is or the speed that im going, finally the car dies. I checked the hood and found that the starter fuse was blown and a spark plug was loose so i replace the starter fuse and retighten the spark plug. and jump the car... now im on my way home from this horrific drive that went totally down hill. Now im 2 hours away from home at an autozone where i now have my battery checked. My battery was low so i had it recharged because god bless autozone they do it for free. Now my batteries all hooked up but they do a test and tell me my battery wont exceed 12.5 volts which means hopefully i make home from 2 hours away where i dont know where the **** im at. I did make it home but my battery light still comes on and cars acceleration is weak when the battery and abs light comes on aswell as the dim dashboard and headlights and non working gauges...whats wrong with this car? its my first car and I love it so much im not ready to let it go or scrap it.

integra_101

Change the battery....?

check grounds, clean them up.

Marcelfly23

yeah i put a brand new battery in and cleaned grounds. could the alternator be bad? i did buy a it from advanced auto parts

integra_101

Sometimes alternators are bad brand new. get it tested again.

Sparksman

99% of part stores parts are less then the best quality... When it comes to cars its really a matter of you get what you pay for. A Honda alternator is close to $200 last time I checked, part store ones are like $60.

I went through 6 alternators with my old 1988 ext cab 4x4 sr-5 toyota pickup. Finally one stayed working, although off-roading may have played a role lol...

Im in a delema myself, should I use a brand new alternator on my fresh build, or the better quality but older oem one...

As for you just replace it, the reason parts come with warranties to begin with is because they know sometimes their **** doesnt work out the box like it should.

snobordboy

Yeah no matter how bad a battery is, once the car is started the alternator should run it until it shuts off.

Honestly I would prefer a used Honda oem alt to a new parts store one.

You probably killed the battery by deep discharging it so many times now, so I would put a good alternator and new battery in at the same time, and run the car while testing the voltage at the battery. You should be seeing around 14 volts when running, and test it with as much load as possible, i.e. lights on, stereo and fan on etc.

Also a good idea to double check all of your grounds in the engine bay, check the condition of your cable, especially the ground going from the battery to the transmission, as the loop in it can let water sit undetected, and corode the cable from the inside.

Marcelfly23

thanks to all you guys that helped the alternator is good I had it checked yesterday. The car was starting and running from the alternator with a bad battery, autozone checked it and it tested good but after letting the car sit he checked the battery again and it tested bad, sometimes batteries give of a good charge after just being used in a running car because of the alternator but I bought a new battery and replaced it and the car is running just fine.