I've got a JDM b16 in a 1990 hatch. I just recently had an accident where I hit the back of this girls car at around 5-10mph. It bent up the headlights, rad support, bumper filler, and the hood, but I bent most of that back into place. Whats going on now is the battery light started flickering off and on, mostly on, after the accident. This went on for two weeks, I thought my battery just got jostled around or something, so I tightened up everything I could see that I thought might be the problem. Still flickering, but it didn't seem to be effecting anything so I put up with it for a while.

Fast forward to last night, I was driving along and the radio started cutting off, then coming back on for a second, then cutting back off and finally staying off. Then I noticed the dash clock getting really dim, then the car started running poorly, not wanting to rev at all. Then my turn signals stopped working and the head and taillights began to dim to almost nothing. I was able to limp it home where it sits right now. My question is: what is most likely the culprit here? Obviously my battery ran out, which leads me to suspect that my alternator stopped working. Am I missing something else it could be? Nothing contacted the motor when I hit the other car, so I assumed it was ok...apparently I assumed wrongly, lol, but I didn't think a little shock would mess up my alternator...

Any ideas as to what this might be?

 

bump for help...I'll be taking the alternator out tomorrow and getting it tested, but is there anything else it might be? I still don't think the bump the car sustained would ruin the alternator...

 

They are probably not related and just a coincidence.

Check that the battery connections are good, and check your engine ground cables. Make sure the alternator belt isnt slipping and that the alternator plug is connected correctly.

 

Sounds like a bad alternator/battery to me. Most likely the alternator. Take it up to AutoZone or something and have them test it.

Like posted above, probably just coincidence.

 

Make sure none of the wires got punched causing excessive curent draw which can kill an alternator. If its all good. It might be bad timing for both.

 

Nail on the head. I took it up to Autozone and they found that BOTH the battery and alternator were bad. :-(

Oh well, I needed another battery anyway, the behemoth sitting in the engine bay now is so big it is resting on my clutch cable lol.

 

I'll check that for sure. It seemed like a hell of a coincidence...

 

sounds like the alternator