Hey guys, I was hoping you could help me with something. Today while I was driving, my cd player kept dying, and the clock kept giong out. Everytime I hit the breaks, everything in the cockpit went dead. Sometimes my car bogged, like it wasn’t sparking. And eventually RPM’s dropped to 0, and i couldn’t restart it anymore. The battery light was flashing, and… this is confusing, here:
Battery Light Flashed
Accessories Died
Import Builders replaced battery with a used civic or g3 integra battery (the smaller ones)
Replaced pully with AEM underdrive pully on alternator
New belt on pully.
[B]New Thought: I have a brand new pully, maybe the tension eventually gave way because it was set too low and now it’s totally slacking off.[/B.]
My thoughts: Alternator is too weak, too old, and plus the underdrive pully, may not be recharging the battery well enough. Also the battery is the smaller kind, and may be old, and can’t recharge correctly, especially with the new pully and old alternator.
Do you guys know if I can just replaced the battery with a new one made for our cars, and the alternator should recharge that correctly? And if the problem is that the smaller battery just isn’t built for my car? Hopefully that’s the problem so I won’t need to replace the alternator. If so I’m gonna be missing the WCM =O(
Okay, thanks GUYS! If you can, please email me or gimmie a call. I hope to fix this ASAP.
Originally posted by 707IntegraGS This may sound like a stupid suggestion, but check your terminals and make sure they’re tight, especially the ground terminal.
yeah, somtimes when im racing after shifting to 2nd, my car acts somthing like that. and sure enough, the power fell off. damn stage 4 clutch.
Originally posted by 707IntegraGS This may sound like a stupid suggestion, but check your terminals and make sure they’re tight, especially the ground terminal.
I only checked the postive power going to the alternator. Where’s the ground? Thanks
check the battery terminals at the posts- sometimes different batteries have smaller posts, and the terminals don’t clamp down tight enough. A quick way to see if your alternator is charging, is to start the car, then disconnect the battery ground cable. If the car dies, the alternator is dead.
terminal clamps look good. i can’t start the car at all right now. not even enough power to keep my hazards on. Do you think if I jump start the car, then try that same thing it’ll work?
Art, take the battery out and get it tested. They might have stuck a bad battery in your car. Also, check you see if the alternator belt is tight enough.
ImportBuilders did the work, they should be obligated to make sue you are satisfied.
try jumping it, then taking off the battery clamps like 707 said, if not then its probably your alternater, hope you car gets fixed before the big meet man, haha. good luck.
Originally posted by AMERIKAN
ImportBuilders did the work, they should be obligated to make sue you are satisfied.
haha couldn’t help but notice … an omen for the future?
Sounds like an alternator problem to me, cause the battery will die if it is powering your teg alone … but it’s strange cause it sounds like it dies fairly quickly even if the alternator is the problem.
wow, thanks guys for all the help. first thing in the morning I’m gonna start checking all these things out. Here’s a list of what I’m going to do, can someone check me on this?
Take battery out and test it, if it sucks, replace and continue…
Jump Battery
Start Car
If it starts, remove neg terminal, check to see if car dies. If so alternator is dead.
Check pully belt tension
all else fails, get a new alternator in there
i can’t get down to import builders… cuz i’m like 1.5 hours away, so towing it would kill my wallet.
thanks guys~!!! please check and see if I can do anything else. damn i swear, g2ic was probably the best thing that happened to me =O)
They put in a brand new alternator pully belt… could it be that after driving it for awhile, the belt tension gradually loosened up? And that’s why the car sort of still ran, but othertimes “slipped”? I think maybe the belt started to loosen up and wear in, and that the tension is now waaaay below specs. I just realized this when John said to check the belt tension. OOOOOOH i’m gonna go get a belt tension gauge. ANYBODY know what the belt tension should be for a NEW or USED belt? AEM comes with an instruction manual in their pully set that gives the specs. Anybody have them? OR have specs anywhere?
dude, the same exact thing happened to me, and i went on here to post what has happened to me, and i was thinking like , " aw, shiet i gotta type everything that happened and everything thats happening" hahaah how ironic. well i’ve come down to it that my alternator is really old and probably just gave. i got it tested and it isnt putting the amperage it should and the batt. has less voltage it should have as well, probably due to a bad alternator. so what i’m going to do, is put my spare alternator on, get a new battery, and after all of that is on, run my car for a little, then i’ll do that trick that Blizzard has explained, removing the negative cable… how long should the car run for without the negative? or should it just run fine without it at first?
the guy at kragen said that a stock one off of a b18a puts out less amperage than a vtec one… i dont konw if he is talking out of his ass… but i guess it kinda makes sense. his theory is that now that i have a vtec motor that the vtec soleniod needs more voltage to run it… (sounds like BS and it just trying to get me to buy a more expensive alternator), but from what i can tell of all the swaps that i have read for a DA said nothing about running a vtec alternator… so i dont know… hopefully i can fix this problem soon. good luck Blizzard
Originally posted by 707IntegraGS check the battery terminals at the posts- sometimes different batteries have smaller posts, and the terminals don’t clamp down tight enough. A quick way to see if your alternator is charging, is to start the car, then disconnect the battery ground cable. If the car dies, the alternator is dead.
Do not ever remove the negative battery cable under any circumstance while the car is running. This can cause a voltage spike that can destroy the ignition system or ecu. That’s why your owners manual tells you not to ground jumper cables onto the negative terminal of the battery. If you can, take the battery to be load tested at Kragen. Even better, if you can, take the car to Kragen or Pep Boys and have them check your charging system. This service is free.
BTW, if the belt was slipping or the pulley failing in some way, im pretty sure you’d be able to hear it.
Do not ever remove the negative battery cable under any circumstance. This can cause a voltage spike that can destroy the ignition system or ecu. That’s why your owners manual tells you not to ground jumper cables onto the negative terminal of the battery. If you can, take the battery to be load tested at Kragen. Even better, if you can, take the car to Kragen or Pep Boys and have them check your charging system. This service is free.
BTW, if the belt was slipping or the pulley failing in some way, im pretty sure you’d be able to hear it. [/B]
ooooooh good tip elmer. i won’t be disconnecting that battery terminal then. Does the charging system at kragen / peb boys check alternator, or just battery? do you think a shop has it? Cuz the nearest kragen is 15 min away.
