I might be having an issue with the charging system, but I am led to believe it really is just the battery going south. I tested the charging output of the alternator and I came up with 12.6v at both idle and 3000 rpms, while battery voltage was a measley 10.6v AFTER a long drive and the car off.

So my question is: With a bad battery, will the alternator output drop due to the battery being bad and eating up as much voltage as possible to charge? I always thought it should read 14.6ish volts no matter what. I did read on a couple forums the Honda ELD will cause it to remain low in a situation such as this.

After the car starts it runs fine, no dimming of lights at all, at idle everything works fine and lights stay bright. This is what makes me think it's all battery issues (well that, and its believed to be an original '08 battery). The only test I did not do is pull the terminals off the battery while the car is running (Rick Spec'd intake, so that would be a pain in the ***).

 

Take battery to autozone for free check. If it's an old battery might be worth replacing anyways. That sounds like a pretty low number.

 

Yeah I believe it was an original. It was being replaced anyways