Alternator/ Battery light???
- Thread starter flydex28
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RHDism
Right Hand Drive guru
Breaks..not brakes.
Electrical grease.. Autozone usually has it near the sales counter.
Electrical issues are always frustrating. A multimeter is your best friend.
Also, you may have to cut open some of the flex wrap to properly inspect. "Some" being no further than 6 or 7 inches from the green plug.
Or, if your knowledgable with a multimeter check continuity and resistance.
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High voltage dialectirc grease works, and just plain old ordinary white grease that comes in a toothpaste type tube works well and is inexpensive. Use it for all plugs and for headlamps, tail lights, turn signal lamps, marker lights, etc.
RHDism
Right Hand Drive guru
Yeah, even put it up yourass.Yeh.. just go to town with it.
Nope. It may from a slow idle, pull up a little. From ~1500 RPM on out it should be stable. If you have a battery charger, when you get the alternator tested, put a full charge on the battery and have it load tested as well.
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flydex28
Senior Member
Ok I changed the fuse/eld box out and i re connected some wiring I had done when i installed the engine, but to no avail. battery light still comes on and will go off if I rev up the engine. The alt. shop was closed today so I will have to wait until next week. As far as the battery; i guess i'll take it to knechts and have them look at it.
flydex28
Senior Member
Ok... update. I took the alternator to the alt shop here in town and he hooked it up to this big ass machine and the result was that the alt. had a problem with it. So I called honda where i got it and they want me to bring it to them so they can test it and they want my VIN number as well for some reason. The guy at the alt. shop told me yes the alt is bad but he cant tell me if it was something else in the car that could be causing it to be bad. I cant think of what else it could be.. considering the light was coming on five minutes after i installed it in the first place. Im hoping the honda dealership doesnt give me the runaround.
Be sure and get the battery checked before closing out this case. The alternator being dorked up likely did some damage to the battery. Overcharge, undercharge or both and over time.
When you put it back together be very aware of a potential wiring problem as RHDism suggested.
Good luck with it - at least you found part of the problem. Now to determine if it was the problem or a symptom of something else.
When you put it back together be very aware of a potential wiring problem as RHDism suggested.
Good luck with it - at least you found part of the problem. Now to determine if it was the problem or a symptom of something else.
flydex28
Senior Member
Got the battery checked.. one place says its bad three other places say its good..lol. I think i'll have it checked out of town when i go pick up the alternator.. have to wait a week for it to come in. Oh yeah I forgot.. when I took the alternator in.. the first thing he said was "well you've got a leak" not sure what that means but when he hooked a clip up to one of the wires a light came on the machine and he said that wasnt supposed to happen. I think im gonna have them test the new one when I pick it up to make sure its good this time.
Oh yeah I forgot.. when I took the alternator in.. the first thing he said was "well you've got a leak" not sure what that means but when he hooked a clip up to one of the wires a light came on the machine and he said that wasnt supposed to happen. I think im gonna have them test the new one when I pick it up to make sure its good this time.
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flydex28
Senior Member
Ok so i picked up the alternator from Honda and a new belt from NAPA. Im thinking about replacing the battery cables and the alt wire that goes from the alt to the fuse box. anybody know where you can get one (alt wire)? Also the stock battery cable that is in the car (d15b) is a 4 gauge wire and the wire that would be for this engine is a 6 gauge and an inch shorter.. even though this engine (B16aSiR2) is bigger. does it make a difference?
Goto a local car stereo/window tint/alarm shop for the wire or Best Buy usually has it. You can order it online from Sound Domain or get it pretty much anywhere. Stranded copper is what you want. The car stereo world has quality wire available thats got fine strands and is hence more flexible and easier to work with and better suited for your application than hardware store electrical type wire.
Are you planning on opening up the harness and replacing the wire then re-wrapping or just doing a piggy back and routing along the harness? If doing the piggy back be sure and wrap the wire with protective tubing and double wrap with good tape.
#8 will do the job, #6 is great if you can get it to fit. #8 will handle 50-60 amps with ease and will be easier to work with. Recommend you crimp and solder all the connections.
If you can find a decent car stereo/alarm shop and ask them for assistance, they will advise you and fix you up with exactly what you need. That's the best way to go.
Are you planning on opening up the harness and replacing the wire then re-wrapping or just doing a piggy back and routing along the harness? If doing the piggy back be sure and wrap the wire with protective tubing and double wrap with good tape.
#8 will do the job, #6 is great if you can get it to fit. #8 will handle 50-60 amps with ease and will be easier to work with. Recommend you crimp and solder all the connections.
If you can find a decent car stereo/alarm shop and ask them for assistance, they will advise you and fix you up with exactly what you need. That's the best way to go.
Use the larger #4 gauge wire. If re-doing wiring and cleaning it up, make up your own cables. Use battery terminal clamps from the world of autosound.
http://central.sounddomain.com/sd/features/amp_install_cat.htm
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flydex28
Senior Member
Well I think i may have fixed it.. I actually removed the car stereo and was checking out the wiring in there and found the shielded antennae wire had been rubbed open and was exposing the copper strands that surround the white isulation stuff inside. I wrapped that area up with elec. tape and put some plastic tubing around that to protect it. Im not sure if that could have been causing the problem since its the antennae wire but you never know.
Next I installed the alternator after having two auto part stores check it out; both saying it was good. I checked the resistance in the alt wire and pos battery wire and got like .1-.3 ohms.. i think thats good. So anyways i hooked everything back up and started the car. It ran rough as shit at first but it seems to do that lately if I dont run it for a week; but more importantly the light never came back on. I drove around for about 5 miles turning on the high beams and heater and such and the voltage seemed to remain constant the whole time no matter the RPM... such as stopping at a stop light, when before it would drop to twelve.. Now its pretty consistant at 14.0 volts.
I think I will still make new wires when I can but for now it seems to be working. Im going to go take it out again in a little bit. Thank you so much for all the help and ideas; you rock!!!
Next I installed the alternator after having two auto part stores check it out; both saying it was good. I checked the resistance in the alt wire and pos battery wire and got like .1-.3 ohms.. i think thats good. So anyways i hooked everything back up and started the car. It ran rough as shit at first but it seems to do that lately if I dont run it for a week; but more importantly the light never came back on. I drove around for about 5 miles turning on the high beams and heater and such and the voltage seemed to remain constant the whole time no matter the RPM... such as stopping at a stop light, when before it would drop to twelve.. Now its pretty consistant at 14.0 volts.
I think I will still make new wires when I can but for now it seems to be working. Im going to go take it out again in a little bit. Thank you so much for all the help and ideas; you rock!!!
Great. The antenna wire shield is grounded and won't have any effect on the problems you were encountering.
Wiring cleanup is a good idea. Did you "Zero" the meter before the measurement? .1-.3 is probably ok - but, could be high and I'm a little suspicious. A reading too high on the resistance would be an indication of corrosion or other issue in the harness or fuse box.
Next time I'm near one of my meters I'll double check on a length of similar gauge wire. Matter of fact, I"m going to go confirm the resistance right now. 0.1 ohms is probably ok, 0.3 ohms is probably not ok. Not an emergency, but could be a problem. Be sure the meter was zereod and you took a good measurement.
http://www.cirris.com/testing/resistance/wire.html The resistance of 8' of #8 copper wire is so low, you wouldn't be able to measure it. The fuse and connections will add some resistance, but still should be so low as to be nominal and not show up on your meter. If it's 0.3 there is a wiring issue to locate and correct.
Make sure you got a good reading. If you did, then replacing the wire and connections is a good idea and may save you some future grief. If there is a bad connection via corrosion or other issue and the alternator starts cranking out max amps, then the connection(s) could generate heat and possibly burn/fail. If the connections at the fuse box are a problem to change, you can run straight (electrically speaking) from the alternator output post to the battery positive terminal - that run should still, however be fused so you will need to add a fuse to the run.
Could even be in the harness itself as was suggested by another forum member. Maybe a splice is loose. Or the wire is damaged, broken, etc.
Wiring cleanup is a good idea. Did you "Zero" the meter before the measurement? .1-.3 is probably ok - but, could be high and I'm a little suspicious. A reading too high on the resistance would be an indication of corrosion or other issue in the harness or fuse box.
Next time I'm near one of my meters I'll double check on a length of similar gauge wire. Matter of fact, I"m going to go confirm the resistance right now. 0.1 ohms is probably ok, 0.3 ohms is probably not ok. Not an emergency, but could be a problem. Be sure the meter was zereod and you took a good measurement.
http://www.cirris.com/testing/resistance/wire.html The resistance of 8' of #8 copper wire is so low, you wouldn't be able to measure it. The fuse and connections will add some resistance, but still should be so low as to be nominal and not show up on your meter. If it's 0.3 there is a wiring issue to locate and correct.
Make sure you got a good reading. If you did, then replacing the wire and connections is a good idea and may save you some future grief. If there is a bad connection via corrosion or other issue and the alternator starts cranking out max amps, then the connection(s) could generate heat and possibly burn/fail. If the connections at the fuse box are a problem to change, you can run straight (electrically speaking) from the alternator output post to the battery positive terminal - that run should still, however be fused so you will need to add a fuse to the run.
Could even be in the harness itself as was suggested by another forum member. Maybe a splice is loose. Or the wire is damaged, broken, etc.
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flydex28
Senior Member
ok.. so today i noticed as long as im driving above 3000 or 3300 RPM the voltage is at 14 volts... but whenever I drop below 3000 RPM it drops back down to 12.6-12.8v. grrr. I am going to try and get some new wires tommorrow and replace the battery wires, alt wire and maybe a couple more grounds. Ill let you know what that does. Not sure how to zero the meter, im using a fluke 23. I'll check it out tomorrow but regardless i think ill get new wires anyway. Thanks for the info.
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