Hello all,
Im a first time user to this forum as Ive never had problems with my 6 year old honda with 160k miles until now. Im hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

On Friday as I drove to work to noticed the radio started going in and out and by the time i reached work, my car died. I got out and cleaned the battery terminals of some corosion and the car started back up. I drove it around the parking lot a bit and it died again. I went and purchased a new battery and put it in. I figure the problem might be the alternator but and new battery would have enough juice to get my car 40 miles home. Thankfully it did. When i got home, i open the hood with the car running and disconnected the negative from the battery and the car died (does this mean its an alternator problem?). I reconnected it and started the car back up and let it idle for a bit before turning it off.

I was thinking about replacing the alternator myself, so i openned up the hood and disconnected the battery and went looking for the alternator ( i know little about cars). I found it and disconnected the 4 pin plug. But then i started wondering "how the hell am I gonna fit that thing out of there past the engine. Do i need to jack up the engine to get the alternator out?" So i decided to not attempt the replacement and bring it to a local garage. So i reconnected the battery and pluged the 4 pin cable back into the alternator. After that point, I get no power at all. I tried jumping my battery, thinking perhaps it was drained but even with jumper cables hooked up, my honda had no power (doenst turn over, no ext/int lights, nothing). Does this sound like the problem is with the battery or the alternator now? Is there one main fuse that feeds ALL electrical power that may have blown? I really just want to get it to run long enough to drive it to a garage. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks all. CH

 

sounds to me like you could have blown a main fuse /// chk main fuses...

 

Where is the main fuse located? I checked the fuse panel and I didnt notice a single fuse that would disable power to everything. Thanks for your help

 

It could be the alternator after you check the fuse issues. The 98-02 Accord V6's have some crappy alternators. THere where two brands that were made so it possibly could be the alternator, especially since you're at 160k.

 

Does my little electrical test (removing the negative terminal while the car is running) prove that the alternator is bad as it doesnt hold a charge sufficient to keep the car running?

Also, where is the main fuse?

Thanks again
CH

 

[QUOTE=nivlak]Where is the main fuse located? I checked the fuse panel and I didnt notice a single fuse that would disable power to everything. Thanks for your help
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QUOTE]

look in the underhood fuse box there should be a 100 amp fuse and a 50 amp fuse chk both of them

 

The main fuse panel is under the hood, it may have fuses and some relays. Pulling the cable off of the battery is not considered a good test for the alternator although it is an old school test, use a multimeter on both DC to check the actual power output of the alternator and the AC mode to check for too much AC Ripple from a bad diode in the power rectifier, I think something around a half a volt is max AC. While you were attempting to remove the alternator you probably shoted out the recharge terminal which blew a fuse or two. You should be able to see it easily.