Driving home from work the lights were getting dimmer over a period of about 45 minutes. Eventually the car died and would not re-start. No warning lights came on except for the ABS light. So I swapped in a known good battery and it started right up and I was able to drive it 5 minutes to my house and parked it. Does this sound like the alternator is bad? The battery is 1 month old. I've been hearing a groaning sound from the alternator & p/s pump area too. You can hear the groaning while sitting in the car with it running. Any advice before I pull the alternator out? The car is a 1999 Accord V6 EX 4-door. Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

Maybe your alternator is loosen, and then the accesories belt isn't turning the alternator, what you would get from that is pretty much what happened to you.
I think you need to check how loose your belt is....

 

get out the DMM and check if your voltage is 14V+ when the car is on.

also, check out the belt as mentioned above.

 

Just checked the belt and it's nice and tight. Once my battery is off the charger, I'll install it and hook up the DMM to see what voltage I'm getting. Thanks!

 

Battery was at 13.2 volts after the re-charging. With the engine running I'm seeing 12.3 volts at the battery terminals. R&R the alternator? Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 951tom &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Battery was at 13.2 volts after the re-charging. With the engine running I'm seeing 12.3 volts at the battery terminals. R&R the alternator? Thanks</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, you should see 14+ volts. Check the alt. output at the alternator (the terminal with the nut holding the wire) and make sure you get 14+ there. If you don't, you can get the alt. tested for free at a local auto parts store and that way you can make sure you don't spend any $$ that you didn't have to.

 

Success! I took out the old alternator (not a difficult DIY project) and took it to Pep-boys. They tested it on there bench machine and it failed all 3 tests. With the new alt. installed, I'm reading 15.0 volts. Does this seem a little high?? Thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 951tom &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Success! I took out the old alternator (not a difficult DIY project) and took it to Pep-boys. They tested it on there bench machine and it failed all 3 tests. With the new alt. installed, I'm reading 15.0 volts. Does this seem a little high?? Thanks!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nice

15v should be fine....as long as it doesn't go higher than that.