itrhopeful

that's pretty much the problem. the alternator is at most two years old. but we just had a crazy rain storm not too long ago and i drove through alot of water. would the screw the alternator? if so is there any way i can fix it? i've definitely been jumping the car for the last couple of days but u don't wanna f up my battery any more than absolutely necessary. also the car stays running once i get it on it doesn't stall out like cars tend to do when they have bad alternators (or at least from my experience). any help would rock. thanks

itrhopeful

i now summon the spirits of honda-tech to help me before i have to go back to my dorm... aaaaaaannnnnnndddd BUMP!

itrhopeful

bump again, please help!

igo4bmx

why don't u get your battery tested

SL!M

Sounds like the battery.

itrhopeful

thought about that but haven't quite gotten to that. i'll check on that tommorrow.

yeah i know i should have tried that first, but what the hell ya know. wouldn't it like drop off anyways and not just quit workin? like it was working great till this weekend then it started sucking.

so does anyone know if a little splash of water can really screw your alternator?

definiteley checking the battery tommorrow

SL!M

They don't design the alternator so its located where it will be hit with water from time to time. Check the damn battery, you are taking step 2 before step 1 which makes no sense. Load test the battery and go from there.

LShatchie

Yeah man its ur battery, the same thing happend to me, I had to jump my car everyday. Thats why once ur car is started and running, it stays running and doesnt die. Your alternator keeps ur battery charged even though it will barely hold a charge.

JDMlyfestyle

go to your local advanced auto or auto zone and they can test your battery and alternator.

itrhopeful

alright now sorry it took me so long to take the advice. i got the battery tested and it only had 11% charge but other than that it was good. and so far all it needs is some electricity from a charger and the car starts right up, so with that in mind along with the fact that it doesn't stall out on me and that it starts after a short time still but gets weaker and weaker as time goes by (as if i'd left me lights on). i've been advised that it's some kind of a short or some sort of a slow drain on the battery.

now i'm just wondering where i would look for such a thing? the guy at the shop said something about testing something, i'm assuming with a voltmeter or the like. if anyone has any advise on that sort of thing it would rock.

itrhopeful

oh yeah and it was quite alot f rain not your normal storm. we got like ten inches in one afternoon and then the next week about the same thing hapened again- rained like hell for hours and hours. 2-4inches an hour at times, but that's another story i just thought i'd throw that in there. it was crazy. anyways i hate electrical stuff. i was hoping it'd be something like a fuse but no luck. oh well at least now i have a charger so i don't have to push my car out of my parking space and get a jump just to start it, right. it could be worse.

itrhopeful

bump

itrhopeful

i checked the battery and it's supposedly still good then i flipped the battery terminals so they'd be tighter. still gotta jump the car everytime i drive. it's startin to get pretty annoying

alotawatts

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itrhopeful &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i checked the battery and it's supposedly still good then i flipped the battery terminals so they'd be tighter. still gotta jump the car everytime i drive. it's startin to get pretty annoying</TD></TR></TABLE>

When you jump start are you connecting the ground cable to the battery of your car or ground point on the block/chassis ? I ask because if you do not ground to the block (and use the battery post) you can fry diodes in the alternator.

PureBlood

when you get home for the night, disconnect your battery, in the morning reconnect it, do that for a couple days and if the battery doesn't die.... then its a power drain of some sort..... search for it

itrhopeful

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PureBlood &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">when you get home for the night, disconnect your battery, in the morning reconnect it, do that for a couple days and if the battery doesn't die.... then its a power drain of some sort..... search for it</TD></TR></TABLE>


sounds like a plan. i'll try that one and let you know how it works. i'll try o get the alternator looked at if i can too.

kjmagnum

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alotawatts &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

When you jump start are you connecting the ground cable to the battery of your car or ground point on the block/chassis ? I ask because if you do not ground to the block (and use the battery post) you can fry diodes in the alternator.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Damn, I thought there was something like that. I had my battery die about a month ago and had to jump it 3 or 4 times (before I got my trusty Optima yellow top ). I connected to both of the battery terminals out of stupidity. It doesnt seem like anything fried though. So where should I have connected the ground on both cars?

alotawatts

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kjmagnum &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I connected to both of the battery terminals out of stupidity. It doesnt seem like anything fried though. So where should I have connected the ground on both cars?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Both battery posts are okay on the doner car but the receiving (dead) car needs the ground cable connected to any good ground point...the block is good... like a hoist hook or other bolts on the block.
This is really a safety thing too in case the bad battery is cracked....no kaboom


Modified by alotawatts at 10:42 AM 4/21/2005

itrhopeful

so o'reilly says the alternator's good still. i'm goin for the d/c the battery overnight thing tonight, (since i'm doin nothing tonight and i def need to go to work in the morning. i guess that'll tell me something.

i guess if that means i for sure am losing charge somewhere in the wiring then i guess i'll have to find a tester. would i need something that tells me how many volt are goin where or would something with just a light do the trick? i'm guessing the later since i'm looking for current where current shouldn't be.

another update soon