1997 Civic EX Alternator Issue
07-19-2008, 08:48 AM
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1997 Civic EX Alternator Issue
Hi all, I have a 97 civic ex with 86000 miles. I bought it from a friend at 36000 miles. He told me it had some battery issues and put in a new one the day I drove it home. We are on battery number 5 for this car. It has been checked at the dealership at least 3 times for alternator issues, but they are always less than helpful and in the past have said "the battery is bad...replace it" - the last visit, they refused to check my SRS system because the battery needed to be fully charged (yet they didn't check the alternator like I asked them to in order to determine WHY the battery was low).
I remember looking online about 3 years ago and finding something (I believe on an alternator manufacturer's page) about a TSB dealing with the alternators in this year civic. I would love to find it so I might possibly be able to convince the dealer to replace the alternator (since during some of the trips to the dealership, it was actually still under warranty but they did little to diagnose the real problem). I finally just got angry and took the car to AutoZone yesterday for a free alternator check. In less than 5 minutes, the guy diagnosed the alternator as being bad and he told me it was running at 49 volts (should be 75, I think). He said it was marginally bad which was why the dealer might have had trouble diagnosing it.
I am just frustrated because I have been driving around with a stupid battery and jumper cables in my car because I can never rely on it 100%. Does anyone know the names of the companies that may have manufactured my alternator? I would love to look at their sites and see if I can find the article from a few years back that I neglected to save. I know most of you will tell me to stop being cheap and put in a new alternator, but it's really just the rude treatment I've gotten from the dealership that upsets me and the expense of putting four new batteries in the car. I just want to make it easy for the dealer to rectify the situation and I know they won't do anything without some sort of documentation.
TIA!
I remember looking online about 3 years ago and finding something (I believe on an alternator manufacturer's page) about a TSB dealing with the alternators in this year civic. I would love to find it so I might possibly be able to convince the dealer to replace the alternator (since during some of the trips to the dealership, it was actually still under warranty but they did little to diagnose the real problem). I finally just got angry and took the car to AutoZone yesterday for a free alternator check. In less than 5 minutes, the guy diagnosed the alternator as being bad and he told me it was running at 49 volts (should be 75, I think). He said it was marginally bad which was why the dealer might have had trouble diagnosing it.
I am just frustrated because I have been driving around with a stupid battery and jumper cables in my car because I can never rely on it 100%. Does anyone know the names of the companies that may have manufactured my alternator? I would love to look at their sites and see if I can find the article from a few years back that I neglected to save. I know most of you will tell me to stop being cheap and put in a new alternator, but it's really just the rude treatment I've gotten from the dealership that upsets me and the expense of putting four new batteries in the car. I just want to make it easy for the dealer to rectify the situation and I know they won't do anything without some sort of documentation.
TIA!
07-19-2008, 09:06 AM
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Re: 1997 Civic EX Alternator Issue (jsolek)
trust us.... MOST stealerships dont give a dam!!!!!!! they dont make money on fixing peoples cars so they just dont care!
only thing i will ever do at a stealership is buy a new car or buy parts at there parts counter to fix my car! i will never have them touch my vehicle! and i mean ALL STEALERSHIPS! ive been dicked around quite enough from chevy stealerships enough when i had my old s10! they wanted to charge me like 1500bucks for all kinds of crap, tune up, computer reprogram, PLUS the 90bucks to diagnos the suposed problem. needless to say i did what i could myself which droped the price down to i think 400bucks from them and another 200-250bucks in parts on my side and labor, all to turn around get it all done what they said and for the mechanic guy to say HOPE IT FIXES YOUR PROBLEM.... WTF!!!!!!!!!! HOPE after he said that i just knew it wasnt fixed. which is wasnt! had the hard shift right when i pulled out of there lot!
i took it to a small shop for 65buck diagnostic fee and he said its 1 sensor on the tranny, 55$ part. he even replaced it and didnt charge me labor to replace it. the 100dollar small shop fixed where the dealerships failure in 2hours!
never again will i go dick around with stealership mechanic! basicaly if the computer will not tell them whats wrong by slaping them in the face i dont think they could find the problem!
you can go in there and act a fool but 99% chance its not gonna mean anything!
just buy a good alternator and pay a small shop to swap it out if you cannt do the work yourself. save your breath and time. stealerships dont care!
only thing i will ever do at a stealership is buy a new car or buy parts at there parts counter to fix my car! i will never have them touch my vehicle! and i mean ALL STEALERSHIPS! ive been dicked around quite enough from chevy stealerships enough when i had my old s10! they wanted to charge me like 1500bucks for all kinds of crap, tune up, computer reprogram, PLUS the 90bucks to diagnos the suposed problem. needless to say i did what i could myself which droped the price down to i think 400bucks from them and another 200-250bucks in parts on my side and labor, all to turn around get it all done what they said and for the mechanic guy to say HOPE IT FIXES YOUR PROBLEM.... WTF!!!!!!!!!! HOPE after he said that i just knew it wasnt fixed. which is wasnt! had the hard shift right when i pulled out of there lot!
i took it to a small shop for 65buck diagnostic fee and he said its 1 sensor on the tranny, 55$ part. he even replaced it and didnt charge me labor to replace it. the 100dollar small shop fixed where the dealerships failure in 2hours!
never again will i go dick around with stealership mechanic! basicaly if the computer will not tell them whats wrong by slaping them in the face i dont think they could find the problem!
you can go in there and act a fool but 99% chance its not gonna mean anything!
just buy a good alternator and pay a small shop to swap it out if you cannt do the work yourself. save your breath and time. stealerships dont care!
07-19-2008, 04:55 PM
#3
H-T White Ops
ALTERNATOR ASSY. (AHGA24) (RMD) (MITSUBISHI)
31100-P2A-A01RM
ALTERNATOR ASSY. (AHGA24) (MITSUBISHI)
31100-P2E-A02
ALTERNATOR ASSY. (RMD)
31100-P2E-A02RM
"RMD" means it's remanufactured btw.
Oh, and Autozone and lots of other places will do battery, alternator and starter checks (on and off the car) for free.
TSBs: http://www.alldatadiy.com/TSB/24/972436a4.html
Modified by NOFX at 6:02 PM 7/19/2008
31100-P2A-A01RM
ALTERNATOR ASSY. (AHGA24) (MITSUBISHI)
31100-P2E-A02
ALTERNATOR ASSY. (RMD)
31100-P2E-A02RM
"RMD" means it's remanufactured btw.
Oh, and Autozone and lots of other places will do battery, alternator and starter checks (on and off the car) for free.
TSBs: http://www.alldatadiy.com/TSB/24/972436a4.html
Modified by NOFX at 6:02 PM 7/19/2008
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