mycivicswaylow53

My battery keeps dieing.. but will be fine for a while after we throw it on the charger. Anyone else have this problem? Is it my alternator? or something else

fmrprojects

turn car on and put volt meter on battery. if not 14+V then your alternator is not charging.

crazyguy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fmrprojects &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">turn car on and put volt meter on battery. if not 14+V then your alternator is not charging.</TD></TR></TABLE>
+1. and u will need a new alternator..autozone or your local auto parts store should have one ..and they can test your old one for free..if u need the removal and installation insturction..pm me


Modified by crazyguy at 7:27 AM 11/7/2007

layedoutat0psi

you dont kno how to drive a car

Frickr

sounds simple but check the water in your batteries if its not a sealed battery.

Tjames8864

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by layedoutat0psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you dont kno how to drive a car</TD></TR></TABLE>

What? You make no sense. Yea he can't drive his car so the battery dies. Good one.

Tjames8864

Haha thats like me picking on you for having V-TEC in your sig. Hey it's VTEC

NOFX

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by layedoutat0psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you dont kno how to drive a car</TD></TR></TABLE>
You don't know how a car works.

OP, take it to Autozone, Advance Auto Parts or Shucks or something. Ask to have a charging system check done on your car.

mycivicswaylow53

I know how to drive my car, my boyfriend just doesn't like riding with me.. he's just jealous because I have yonoka racing seats
and I know a little bit about how it works... the battery has been fine after throwing it on the charger so I doubt it's the alternator...
If it were the alternator, then the battery would have most likely died by now. Thanks though...

mycivicswaylow53

I'm a chick lol
94 2 drCivic.. cold air, red yonoka racing seats.. no back seat to accomodate the seatbelt harness, front and rear lip kit (body kits are gay), 13s for winter steelies, slammed, yellow jdm fog lights, black diamond headlights//crnr markers.. coke bottle oil catch can .. it's "jdm yo".. just kidding but it makes people look twice
it will be finished in the spring with paint and a CF hood.. possibly a few more mods

mugenpower95eg4door

is the battery brand new? Sometimes you can charge the battery all the way up and it would be good for a week or so but, if the battery is a couple years old it will steadly lose power especially if you live in an area where the climate changes. Me living in Pa, I've had batterys that would have not a problem, then the first cold day of the year, the ***** goes dead as a doornail. The alternater is fine unless the terminals on the battery are corroded or not making good contact. If the car runs and doesn't require the battery to do so (meaning its not runnng of the battery) then the alternater is fine. Best way to test the alternater w/o removing it is to hook an Ohm meter up to the battery and start the car, the meter should read around 14.2-14.8 volts running. The battery should have at least 12.0-12.8 volts w/o the car running.

RIZOBIZERT

If the alternator is not your problem you may have a ghost drain. Disconnect the ground cable from the battery. Make sure all the lights, accessories, everything is off. Run a test light from the ground wire to the ground terminal. If it lights up something is on and it's draining your battery while the car is sitting idle (off). If necessary, pull fuses until the light goes off. When you've found the magic fuse, you've found your problem. Good luck!

NOFX

I hope you don't think I was saying you don't know how it works. I was replying to another message and telling that guy that he doesn't know how a car works if he thinks this had anything to do with your ability to drive.

And being a girl really doesn't matter. I'm girl too.

slowcivic2k

Coincidence would have it this happen to me recently. I noticed my lights getting dim. Battery light would not come on with the car off, but would come on with the car running, sometimes it would do nothing at all. The alternator was putting 12.7V on the battery, and 15A MAX after I had benched it. Just enough to run it around. Then it dumped on me, defective regulator. If your alternator is at fault, have your battery load tested as well at at least half of its rated amperage. If the battery won't easily take a charge, or let power out, it will short out the diodes in the alternator, blowing it up. Simply because the current has no way to get back to the alternator. (must pass through the + to - and back to the negative diodes in the alternator.) Inspect the chargeback wire for corrosion and the terminals as well.

eskimo10

Well I didn't see anyone throw this out there but a simple way to check your alternator is to cut the car on and unhook the "+" cable and if the car dies then your alternator is dead if not i would suggest trying some of the other options, but thats just a simple alternator test to try.

slowcivic2k

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eskimo10 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I didn't see anyone throw this out there but a simple way to check your alternator is to cut the car on and unhook the "+" cable and if the car dies then your alternator is dead if not i would suggest trying some of the other options, but thats just a simple alternator test to try.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Listen to this guy, he has the owners manual to DESTROYING AN ALTERNATOR!

Did you read anything I just posted? Resistance in the chargeback wire, battery, or ground cable (or an OPEN WIRE) ruin the rectifier diodes. An open wire will fry it just as fast as unhooking a spark plug wire and not grounding it, which fries the coil.

No one said it because its a stupid idea.

stock_honda_coupe

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slowcivic2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Listen to this guy, he has the owners manual to DESTROYING AN ALTERNATOR!

Did you read anything I just posted? Resistance in the chargeback wire, battery, or ground cable (or an OPEN WIRE) ruin the rectifier diodes. An open wire will fry it just as fast as unhooking a spark plug wire and not grounding it, which fries the coil.

No one said it because its a stupid idea.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Plus you could fry the computer because voltage spikes really high when you do that.


Bottom line, if the battery doesn't die while the car is running, the altinator is fine. If it only goes dead when the car sits for a while, You've most likely got whats called a parasetic drain. And you'll need a multimeter to properly test for that.

slowcivic2k

Voltage stays the same, the huge current flow that cant go anywhere will blow up the stator, no other damage will occur. The diodes are the weak point.

An alternator can produce power just fine with the car running, but a failed discharge diode can cause the battery to discharge into the stator, making it seem like a good alternator on a charge test. A complete charging system analyzer will check all the diodes for proper operation, including the full load test.

Parasitic draw tests are normally out of reach because 9/10 times the current draw is over 10A, out of range of most multimeters, and will blow the fuse internally.

layedoutat0psi

Quote, originally posted by layedoutat0psi »
you dont kno how to drive a car

What? You make no sense. Yea he can't drive his car so the battery dies. Good one.

Quote, originally posted by layedoutat0psi »
you dont kno how to drive a car

You don't know how a car works.
OP, take it to Autozone, Advance Auto Parts or Shucks or something. Ask to have a charging system check done on your car.

just to let you guys kno thats my gf and i was just pickin on her. and i work at auto zone and ive done the tests on her car. and still dont kno whats wrong

NOFX

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by layedoutat0psi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just to let you guys kno thats my gf and i was just pickin on her. and i work at auto zone and ive done the tests on her car. and still dont kno whats wrong</TD></TR></TABLE>
So how does the charging system check turn out then?

And learn to quote. You copy and pasting made it really difficult to know what you were saying.

layedoutat0psi

sorry i couldnt figure out how to quote more than one persons at a time so i just copy and pasted. sorry it made it diffucult to read. but anywas the tests turned out good everything was fine. so i dont kno what it was. its been fine ever since tho and we didnt do anything to it. so who knos. maybe it fixed itself??

Dead CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tjames8864 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Haha thats like me picking on you for having V-TEC in your sig. Hey it's VTEC </TD></TR></TABLE>
hehe yeah you got him.

well to quote just prell the qupte button on top right corner of peoples replies. and you can do this multiple times

*take the batt. to get tested before you get you mess with your Alt.