Ragedude

Hello, I have a 99 Honda civic, recently my wife was driving it. She said she bumped the exhaust going over a speed bump. After that the car's battery would not hold a charge and would be completely dead in the morning. Assuming it was a bad battery I replaced it. That did not fix the issue. After some diagnosing with a voltage meter it turned out the Alternator was pulling 2 amps. I replaced the alternator, that seemed to fix my issue but the battery light was on. I had the alternator and battery both checked. Both passed. I figured it was just a bad alternator from auto zone so I replaced the alternator again, this time around the battery light is fully on. I made sure to get the correct alternator as well, not the Canadian version. On a side note after replacing the alternator the second time my check engine light was on for about 2 days, (02 sensor) it has now turned off. Other forums say a bad fan motor. My fans in the engine bay work currently.

The car drives great now, holds a charge and has not died. I have checked to make sure the alternator is putting out good power and it is. I am going to pull the intake manifold and check for a short in the wiring from the alternator. Any other suggestions?


(What I have done again)
Replaced battery
Replaced Alternator x2
Cleaned all grounds
Checked all fuses under the hood and in the fuse box inside car (no blown fuses)
Verified that battery is holding a charge now.
Verified that Alternator is putting out power.

(What I am going to do next)
Inspect wiring from alternator in wiring harness

ezone

Got other fault codes?

Blown fuse?


If you can unplug the 4 wire connector from the alternator, does the charge light turn off?

Ragedude

I have zero codes, the check engine light is off the check engine light was on up until 2 days ago. All fuses have been checked and are good. Yes, the battery light does turn off when the alt plug is off. I am thinking it is a short but unsure have not checked yet.

ezone

Did you get the code number from that? Curious.
If it's got a bad sensor, the code will surely return sometime soon.


You checked this with the engine running as well as engine off, yes?

That means the alternator is in full control of that warning light. Nothing else is keeping the warning light on. No "shorts" except inside the alternator.

Therefore, the alternator must be at fault.
I'd suspect it probably has a flaky voltage regulator in it that can't unground the L terminal to turn the warning light off.

Someone posted with an unusual situation like someone hacked the wiring plug for the alt and got it miswired, so there's that. Of course if yours was miswired, it should have been an obvious and ongoing problem since the day it was miswired.

Ragedude

It was bank 1 I am pretty sure, the 02 leading into the wiring harness that the Alt goes into.

As I said previously. The battery light was not on at all until I replaced the Alt. The reason why I replaced the Alt in the first place was it was drawing 2 amps of power when the car was off and killing the battery. After replacing it the first time the battery light was on very dim. I replaced it again and the battery light was back on full this time. I am going to take of the intake manifold and check for any exposed wires on friday... I am not sure where else to go from here..

Ragedude

IF I do not find any exposed wires, I will replace it again, I am going to end up fully returning the alt from autozone and buying one from a different autoparts store in town.. From what I have read a lot of autozone alts have issues with this.

ezone

Clues #1, 2, and 3.

You unplugged the connector from the alternator and the light turns off. That's clue #4.
That means the alternator is in full control of that warning light. Nothing else is keeping the warning light on. No "shorts" except inside the alternator.

That's all the evidence I need to see to call a bad alternator.
Clue #5 thru 1000. LOL

I think most of the discount parts stores have about the same success rate for remans. It's always a crapshoot.


If you want to look for bared wires, this is a good place to check (though I seriously doubt this is your problem)
http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/Sp...720_058687.pdf



.

Ragedude

Alright... I have some good news hopefully. I cleaned my grounds again last night. Today when I drove to work, the Mph gauge was not working until 30 minuets into my drive. Then it went crazy like it was on crack. The check engine light turned on around that time as well. The one thing that makes me happy is the battery light started to go dim then bright again. I am thinking it is a bad ground now.

El Malo