hello, i have a 1994 honda accord lx, ~114k miles on it

about a month ago i was in an accident, front passenegr side. got it repaired and all. only problem i had post repair was i had to change a fuse for my clock/radio.

i recently had to replace me back passenger side brake light. i used a sylvania 12 volt, part #3496 as the website recommends for my make/model.

anyways, my problem is that whenever i apply my brake, my interior lights dim noticably. by interior lights i mean the clock, gear display lights, and the overlight display for my gauges (speedometer, etc).

does anyone have any idea what might be causing this, and if/how it could be fixed?

thanks in advance

 

it sounds like your alternator might be crapping out. take your car over to autozone to have them check it out for free. also check the connections on your battery and make sure they're nice and tight, as well as any other grounds.

 

Autozone is your friend. check alternator. If you just chose to forget about it, and you alternator is bad. your battery light should come on and stay on until your car comes to a halt.

Might wanna check battery cables and grounds.

 

I wqas driving last night and all of a sudden my 1993 Honda Accords battery died. First my radio went off and I thought it was just a fuse. Then I noticed that the car was stalling when I press on the gas. After 5 minutes my car just went off. I went to autozone to buy a new battery and they told me to comeback the next day to have the alternator check for free. Since the autozone where I bought teh battery is farther than where I live at, I went to the one closer to us. When I went there the guy from autozone check my battery but nobody knows how to check the alternator. My question is, how can I check if my alternator is not faulty?

Thanks for the reply in advance

 

use a voltmeter to check the voltages across the terminal. I think it should be around 13-14v. lower is bad.

 

same exact thing happened to my car, i thought it was the battery too, wasted 80 bucks, changed the alternator and i was back in action in no time!

 

It sounds like a short to ground in the brakelight circuit. When your accident occured, a small piece of the shielding on one of your wires was probably worn or scraped off. Get out your DVOM (digital volt meter) and start testing your circuits... this is a very common problem in many vehicles that have been involved in even a minor traffic collision.

 

Well, if the alternator is shot, take the battery cables off the battery once you start the car. If it dies, your alternator is bad. If it doesn't, check voltage across the cables at the battery (with the battery disconnected, engine running). Could also be the voltage regulator, which for you is located IN the alternator, so you'd need a new one anyway.

 

nice efficient posting good game. you can also take it to interstate battery

 

You can't just pull the battery while it is running to see if the alternator is working. The ecu gets its power from the battery because it has a smoother voltage curve then the alternator output. Has to be a short in the brake light. That when he hits the brakes grounds out and causes a large draw on the system.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 91exaccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You can't just pull the battery while it is running to see if the alternator is working. The ecu gets its power from the battery because it has a smoother voltage curve then the alternator output. Has to be a short in the brake light. That when he hits the brakes grounds out and causes a large draw on the system.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whether or not the ECU gets the power from the alternator or battery, when the car is running it's still 13.8V. It's the voltage regulator that smooths out the spikes in the line, so to speak. If the battery is low enough, when the brake lights come on you will see everything dim/gauges drop. Happened to me, by the time I pulled off the highway the engine died completely. Alternator was replaced and all was good.

 

to check your altenator get a voltmeter. your battery voltage with car of should be high 11's to low 12's. With your car running your voltage should be high 13's to low 14's if you get a jump and read your battery voltage and it is around 12 and decreasing then the problem is your altenator.