Strange but powerful power drain. HALP.

ASSISTANCE Electrical & Entertainment Systems
1

Hey everyone! Just bought my first 2nd gen Integra today. 1990 GS Integra hatch. I was driving around, everything was fine but one time today I noticed the battery light came on. Wipers were a bit slow but the sun roof and power windows still went up and down quickly.

Then tonight (I guess because I had headlights and all that on) I got in the car, started it up no problem and went to the drive through. I noticed my dash lights were very dim, my clock was almost blacked out and the car started to idle roughly. It died when I hit the brakes (brake lights pulled even more power) and it died. Wouldn’t crank over or anything. Headlights were still on and weren’t too dim. Enough to light the way. I had a friend push the car and it wouldn’t even bump start… at all.

Waited a few minutes, cranked it and it started back up again. But died a few minutes later. Weird…

Anyway so I get a boost and limp home. Almost never made it in the driveway before dying again. Park it and wait an hour, for curiosity sake I went out and tried to start it. . . It did. Turned over NO problem or hesitation. All lights were very bright, all power to windows were good but again only lasted about I’d say less than a minute this time… Anyone got any idea?

Edit: Just started the car, took off negative terminal. Died immediately.

2

Sounds like your alternator is going bad. Make sure that the battery ground terminals are tight on the chassis , engine and transmission.

3

+1

4

Alrighty. Alternator replacement it is. Thanks guys!

5

good way to test an ALT, start the car, disconnect the battery… if it dies pretty quick, its the alt. batteries can hold enough juice to keep it running decently and by doing this you take it out of the equation

6

That sounds very similar to my 91GS when my alternator failed. I checked the voltage across the battery terminals while the engine was running and had only 11.7 VDC. Increasing the engine RPM had no effect. I removed the left drive axle to get the alternator out. I drove the car on battery power alone for about 15 minutes to get it to a garage for repairs. I also carried a spare battery just in case. Let us know how it turns out.