Alternator

[T3aM 83rD]

I got a couple of questions about the alternator, i have already read all the of the past posts. One rainy night i was driving home with my ac on, rear defroster on, headlight and foglights on, radio and system on, windshild wipers on, and in the highway i noticed the lights were dimming, when i got off the highway i was at a red light and all of a sudden my radio cuts off, then starts to flicker on and off imediately the car rpm guage starts falls as if the car was gonna shut off, i turned off the radio and the car regained energy, and i drove home and that was that. As i spoke to people, many told me it was my alternator and it is going to die soon. i drove the car a couple of times after that carfully monitoring the volt on my digital cap and when i am idleing with my system on the volts drop to the 11.9x but as i rev the car it goes up. when driving in the night, my interior dash light dim when i idle but ones i give it alittle gas it brightens up. I have came to the conclusion that its my alternator. my questions are (1) do alternators die out out of the blue or does it happen in a set of stages (progressively gets worst and then die)? (2) im gonna get a rebuilt unit for about $100, my options are bosch, duralast, OE(not OEM), Valucraft, im leaning towards the bosch, but im not sure, which would you get and why? (3) i think that im pretty good at working on my car, i was looking at the location of the alternator and it looks like is gonna be a bitch to get out and put in, does anyone have any advice? (4) how do you get off and put on the belt? i dont know anything about working with belts. Thanks

[Stealthman80]

I hear you should only use genuine honda ones, cause none of the aftermarket ones work good

[Caution]

I got a couple of questions about the alternator, i have already read all the of the past posts. One rainy night i was driving home with my ac on, rear defroster on, headlight and foglights on, radio and system on, windshild wipers on, and in the highway i noticed the lights were dimming, when i got off the highway i was at a red light and all of a sudden my radio cuts off, then starts to flicker on and off imediately the car rpm guage starts falls as if the car was gonna shut off, i turned off the radio and the car regained energy, and i drove home and that was that. As i spoke to people, many told me it was my alternator and it is going to die soon. i drove the car a couple of times after that carfully monitoring the volt on my digital cap and when i am idleing with my system on the volts drop to the 11.9x but as i rev the car it goes up. when driving in the night, my interior dash light dim when i idle but ones i give it alittle gas it brightens up. I have came to the conclusion that its my alternator. my questions are (1) do alternators die out out of the blue or does it happen in a set of stages (progressively gets worst and then die)? (2) im gonna get a rebuilt unit for about $100, my options are bosch, duralast, OE(not OEM), Valucraft, im leaning towards the bosch, but im not sure, which would you get and why? (3) i think that im pretty good at working on my car, i was looking at the location of the alternator and it looks like is gonna be a bitch to get out and put in, does anyone have any advice? (4) how do you get off and put on the belt? i dont know anything about working with belts. Thanks

1. If your alternator wants to say bye bye to you, it will do that instantly or if it wants to die a slow and painfully death, it will too. So it all just depends on what is wrong with it, if its seized up because of a bad bearring it will just shit on ya and leave ya, now if its just normal wear and tear, it will take some time to dis ya.
2. Depends on what you wanna spend on a alternator, like they say, what you pay is what you get. The duralast seems to do ok. I dont like the bosh, because they arnt that great when it comes to performance, so i never get any bosh brand parts, thats just me.
3. Take your time, dont hustle yourself, plan on a weekend job, or your days off, you might have to take off the power steering unit, im not to sure, but if its in your way, just move it. Make sure you got all your tools that you would need.
4.There are tensioner adjusting bolts for loosening the belts. The alternator tensioner is a pain in the but to get somtimes, but once u loosen that and the bolt holding the alternator to the bracket, you should be able to move the belt easily!

[T3aM 83rD]

I was talking to someone, and they told me that they had similar symtoms as far as the lights dimming and all he did was replace the battery and everything worked fine after that. Does anyone think that this might be a battery problem, or did anyone have these same problems?

[bruno8747]

I had alternator problems before and it was went i had all the big system and shit. I ended up getting the duralast one from autozone and its still working now, its going onto a year so far without any problems and lifetime warranty.

Its not that hard to take it out of the car actually. Its like 30mins tops.

Sometimes it just goes out and sometimes they just gradually start dropping in the voltage they put out.

[blackcb7]

I was talking to someone, and they told me that they had similar symtoms as far as the lights dimming and all he did was replace the battery and everything worked fine after that. Does anyone think that this might be a battery problem, or did anyone have these same problems?

take your battery to an autzone of something like that, usually they will check if for free

[rlyons]

Also check the tension on your belt, if it is loose then it will not charge.

[T3aM 83rD]

I took my car to Autozone and they tested my alternator and battery and they said everything is fine. I'm thinking about putting in another battery to see if that solves the problem.

[keegur]

ok well since this is an alternator problem i also need help on where to find a higher voltage alternator becuz i am running 3 10 inch 2 ohm subs by boston and my brother had this same set up in his accord back like 6 years ago and said that he blew so many things and that i need to get a higher output alternator