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Hi All. Short backstory. Last year I replaced the alternator on my '13 Civic EX-L. I used an ORielly alternator as it was the only one that was available to me at the time. I've always questioned if this alternator would be any good compared to OEM as it is a rebuilt one. OEM lasted until 275k miles. I am now at 300k. A few times recently, I have noticed my headlights dim while driving at night. I hooked up a scan tool and took some live diagnostics. Most of the time the voltage seems good. ~12.5-14.5 volts depending on the load ie if headlights are on or off. However sometimes the voltage can drop below 12V. Sometimes to near 0 for a second or two. Any opinions as to what this could be? No codes are tripped. I have ordered an electronic load detector as a precaution since they are so cheap. But I am tempted, should I order a OEM alternator? They are like 550 bucks, but I can't afford to be stranded on the road either.

Thanks for any help!

 
Rep Power: 211

Probably a faulty voltage regulator https://axleaddict.com/auto-repair/A...Regulator-Test which is usually built into the alternator.

 
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Thank you. To be safe, I ordered an OEM alternator from a Honda dealer online. I also ordered the ELD. Just don't want to get stranded on the side of the road 100 miles from home.

 
Rep Power: 99

That's almost the exact experience I had with replacing my alternator. It was a reman O'reilly brand and it did work for a few months. However, I began to see the battery light flicker during idling or when coming to a stop. I put a volt-meter on the battery while the engine was running and the voltage was wildly erratic (mostly above 12V but sometimes dropping below to trigger the battery light).

I removed the alternator and had O'reilly test it on their in-house tester. It gave three green lights indicating it was fine. I asked them to swap it for another reman since I couldn't return it, but I didn't install it. Instead, I purchased a new Remy brand alternator and haven't had any problems since. I keep the reman O'reilly alternator as a spare.

Between my experience and yours, I'm thinking O'reilly may have an issue with the quality of their reman alternators.

 
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Thank you for sharing that story. Makes me feel better that I ordered a new alternator. I was thinking the same thing, that I would keep the raman O Reilly as a backup. What's funny is when I took my original alternator in to get tested, their computer said they could not test it without it being on the car. I was like "whatever" and just bought their reman one.