I have a 98 integra, and just recently installed hondata, including of course the obd 2-obd1 harness....resistor pack, and some RC 500cc injectors. The car runs good except for the alternator. Sometimes (60% of the time) when i idle, the alternator stays off, but if i turn on the a/c, or rev up the car to about 3000 rpm's, the alternator will turn on. Does anyone have any experience with this? I checked the ELD (electrical load detector) and it checked out ok. Do you guys think the Internal Voltage Regulator is shot on the alternator? Or is there any way to check the alternator? It started happening when i switched to hondata and obd1. The car is suppose to be under warranty until like august 28th, but I know there is no way they will warranty it with this hondata and stuff. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

I've only seen this once before, last year. It was due to worn brushes in the alternator. When the brushes get worn, they do not press against the commutator hard enough, causing erratic alternator performance.

You can check by pulling the brushes out of the alternator... if they're shorter than about 4-5 mm, get new ones from Kragen. They're less than $2.

 

hmm....Thanks for the info. but i still feel like somethings up with the ecu.

 

Yeah maybe that statement was a bit confusing. Ok I have my turbo timer set to Voltage Mode so it displays the voltage it reads. Now if i start my car, and let it idle, it will usually stay at around 14.0 v on the display. If i drive around, chances are, when i come to a stop, the voltage will drop to about 12.0 v. Now if I turn on the a/c the voltage will jump back up to 14 v, or if i rev the car past 3000 rpms it will also jump up to 14 v. Also when driving, if i reach 3000 rpm in a gear, or stay above 40 mph, the display will read 14.0 v. I just went to autozone and they did the little free test. He told me the alternator was fine. so this leads me to believe something is wrong with the ecu, or the wiring from the obd2-obd1 conversion.

 

Give this ARTICLE a read.

 

Thanks for the help. The battery is only a couple months old, Ill do more testing later, I have a physics final to study for right now.

 

the eld will turn the alternator "off" when there is no load on the engine then back on when a load is detected. check your alt with your lights on for an accurate measure. its possible the obd1 is not reading it correctly