95 Accord EX, F22B1, automatic transmission. 158k miles.

Over the last few days, it has stumbled a few times on startup. The last time it started successfully, the battery light on the dash blinked, then went away. Last it night would not start at all. I jumped it, but it died after 5 minutes of idling. I bought the car in January, and the sticker on the battery looks like it (the battery) was bought last year. I can't find my multimeter to check voltage levels. My shop manual has a flowchart for it based on voltage levels at x RPM, so I obviously can't test that.

My guess is the alternator is out, since it wasn't getting any juice after the jump. Anyone disagree? I can pick one up today and swap it out. I'll also spray some of that battery terminal anti-corrosion stuff around all the groundwire connection points.

I am running an errand now, so I can't reply back right away. I pulled the battery and am going down to Autozone to test and eliminate it as a possibility.

Edit: oh, search turned up these threads:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...ght=alternator
https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...ght=alternator

 

I wouldnt trust Autozones Testing capabilities, they may say it is good when it may still be bad, they told me that my altenator and a starter were good on 2 separate occasions and they turned out to be bad.

 

First take off your battery terminals, sand until shiny and reinstall. Then start car and check voltage across battery terminals. If you have around 14 volts your alternator is probably OK. If you only have 12 volts or less then your alternator is not charging the battery. All you need is a cheap $10 volt meter.

 

I worked for Autozone and you are absolutely right about the testing capabilities of the testing machine. I would test the product and then say that it still could be bad. Manager did not like it but I was right about 75% of the time. OP- I don't know if this still works with newer cars, but an old trick to "test" the altenator was to get the car started (with a charged battery) and then pull off the negative battery post. If it died, bad altenator.

 

Thanks all for your help. 10-4 on the Autozone testing; I'll have access to a different multimeter tonight to double-check myself.

Apologies for leaving you all hanging, but a lot has happened since my last post. Autozone said the battery was bad, so I went ahead and bought one from them. I brought it home, hooked it up, and that's where the fun started.

As soon as it connected, the alarm went off. Why didn't I mention an alarm before? Well, that would be the alarm I didn't know I had. The previous owner never mentioned it, nor gave me a remote for it. When I bought the car, I just got one normal key.

So, I spent a few hours exorcising that damn thing from the car. First thing was that freakin' alarm. After I saw the splice down near the firewall, I didn't even bother with "the right way", I just clipped it it. Exhibit A:



From then on, it was pulling a wire, connecting battery, seeing hazzards go nuts, repeat. Finally, I found the controller under the dash, in Exhibit B:



I had a scary moment when it wouldn't start after the controller was unhooked, but remember to plug the inginition relay back in ... and start!

Whew. So I was halfway there.

With wires dangling, I headed back to AZ to test the alternator with the battery in the car. The diagnosis: 12.2v off the ol' alt. Before leaving, I ask for a quote on a new alt, and am told $100. Sweet. That's about half what I expected, and 1/4th what Honda quoted me for an OEM unit.

I then head over to a car audio shop. Pray, good sir, cast this abomination from mein car. Somehow I went from old English to German there, but whatever. They understood. I paid for an hour of labor for a tech to follow all the wires (krunk that, it's 1pm and already 97'F here) and guarantee the thing was out.

With the unit out and my dash back together, I returned to Autozone. AZ test showed 14.5v at idle off the alternator. That's good enough for me.

So, if the alt craps out on me again (and I'll occassionally check voltage now), I can just go pick a new one up for $100 bucks. If not, then I'm ahead that.

(No, I didn't actually talk to the shop like they were the renaissance fair.)