Hi Everyone. I have a frustrating issue- I am selling my wife's 2000 Honda Civic 4 door EX. It is a 1 owner 122K mile car. Nothing has been done other than Honda Dealer maintenance. It has been sitting in our driveway for 1.5 years being used every couple of months when family comes in to visit (3rd car). This is why we kept it until now. It has some issues that are now causing headaches... I believe these are caused by sitting without being used.

1. Exhaust- Condensation from not being driven- agreed?

2. Charging- I have been jump starting it every couple months... never an issue until last Sunday. I left the battery hooked up to charger at 12 V and medium setting for 1 hour. I started the car and the "Not Charging" battery indicator came on. This has never came on before. Does it make sense that I cooked battery? What about Alternator? I take it I should hook up volt meter and measure volts off terminals? Can you cook an alternator (Voltage reg?) by over charging with charger? Any ideas to help me trouble shoot?


The other PIA is the timing belt- excellent write ups in this forum. Ordered one from Majestic in RI. I have done Toyota 4 Runner v6 timing belts... cake walk. I will do this in next week.

Thanks in advance.
-Matt

 

This is normal.

A bad battery would not cause the warning light to turn on. It's almost always a bad alternator, assuming that the alternator belt and mounting nuts/bolts are tight.

 

I've only ever seen the light come on twice. Once when the alternator belt came off and the other time for one with a bad regulator that was severely overcharging. I've seen more than one alternator that was bad and not charging not put the light on though.

Also, depending on how humid the climate is where you live those alternators will sometimes seize after sitting for about 3 weeks or more.

 

Thanks for the comments. I hooked it up to my scan tool- it is throwing P1298and P0141 error codes.

Your comment about the alternator freezing up after 3 weeks- I live near Boston MA (suburbs). It is very humid and the car sat for a few months without being driven. When i started it, there was a horrrible sound and a bit of smoke comming from belt area. In hindsight, I assume the bearings had seized. After a few minutes, it was purring like a kitten. I assume that the bearings were dead at that point, and that I was getting enough charge up until now. Now that I want to sell it- murphy's law kicks in and I have to replace the alternator.

I will swap the timing belt, while in there, pull the alt off and have it tested and most likely buy a replacement.

I might give the car to my cousin for baby sitting... his brother got my Accord under same deal.

Very clean other than timing belt, Exhaust (easy fix done with 6 pack of beer), minor dent in front fender, and and now alternator. Figure $2500 for a baby sitting estimate?

-Matt

 

Reset the ECU to see whether the codes return.

 

What probably happened was the alternator seized and the belt burnt off. The bearings never seize, the armature rusts and due to running extremely close the winding it seizes up. Usually you can take the alternator off and free it up by turning the alternator pulley nut clockwise with an impact gun, once it frees up turn it back and forth with the impact gun till it spins freely.