I will be driving, and my accessories will start to cut out...my wipers will slow down, my radio will cut out, my dash lights will dim, and then they will just go back to normal a minute later, and then the process repeats again...It even got bad enough today that the ABS light came on because it wasn't getting enough juice.

I don't know if it is my battery or my alternator, but it is one of the two right?

 

How does the car start-up? Any problems?

 

It starts fine, thats why I think it is my alternator the more I think about it.

Also, when I was installing my earthing system the other day I may have arched the alternator, because a lot of sparks flew for a second when I was grounding it ( on me for not disconnecting battery when installing). On that note, I know its not the grounding system, because I've installed the same thing on about 5 cars and none of them are acting weird, so I think I may be at fault for crapping out my alternator...

Oh well, I have a few laying around, I think i'm gonna start working on it now.

 

Hmmm.. I would say altenator, but you can always check the condition of your battery for free at any autozone or advanced auto.

Eric

 

I thikn you have just answered your own question.

 

have you been at a stop and the speedy needle buries its self??? if so alternator

 

If its not your charging system..........Bad ground.

 

check your tranny ground

but yeah..sounds like alternator

 

Could have blown a diode in the alternator when you did that.

Been there done that.

 

get a mutimeter or voltmeter and check your battery voltage with the car off. it should read 12.5-13.5volts. if it is less than 12v, you may have a battery problem.

if your batt checks out good, start the car and take readings at the battery with the car reving about 2000 rpm. the voltage should be like 14-15volts if the alternator is working properly.

 

I'll put money its the alternator, the same thing happened to me on my crx


[Modified by Integra Type R, 10:43 PM 3/26/2003]

 

 

Similar thing happened to me in my beater. Everything started to die one by one.

Turned out to be the alternator

 

I never saw a battery put out more then 12 volts with the car off so if you don't get 12+ it's still ok. All the ones I've seen read everywhere from 11.5 to 12 and up with the engine off.

oh yea, It's the alternator

 

I'd say a ground wire...I hooked the ground on my valve cover to the wrong spot, and had all sorts of weird electrical probs for a few days till it just died. That one little wire caused lots of probs.

 

I've read 13v on good batteries a lot of times... in fact that's more normal than not.

the wet cells in the batteries are capable of putting out somewhere around 2.2v each. w/ 6 cells in a 12volt battery, 13.2 would be about the max you would see. typically one cell will go bad, so you're left with only 5 cells.

best way to check is with a voltmeter.

 

yea well... I'm retarded

 

i think it is the battery

 

It was the alternator...fried diode.