Faulty alternator on honda civic 90?

"ixnaum" > wrote in
oups.com:

>> He sure did. Your "new" alternator is pooched. It's a standard crappy
>> aftermarket reman: bad right out of the box. Why am I not surprised?
>
> I will try to take care of it under warranty. I called them and they
> said that they don't trust the multimeter measurement (because it
> could be the battery)



If you connect a multimeter to the battery with the engine running and
while the alternator is charging, you'll see over 14V at idle. If your
monkey doesn't know how to do a proper charge test, then he's
incompetent and is looking for a way to stick you with the costs of his
stupidity.



> They will do a bech test. If it passes they replace it, if it doesn't
> pass I have to pay $40 of how much it costs to perform the test and
> then I have to look for another solution.



Sounds fair... *If* they know how to do a bench test...



>
> Could it really be the battery?



Don't think so.

Do YOU know how to check the battery? It's pretty easy.




> Also, it did
> work 100% perfectly well for the first 15 minutes ... and then it
> crapped out.



It's BAD. Standard aftermarket, like I said before...





--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 02:47:44 +0000 (UTC), Tegger >
wrote:


>If you connect a multimeter to the battery with the engine running and
>while the alternator is charging, you'll see over 14V at idle.

That's a little hot. The max setting is 13.8 vdc...anything over that
should be addressed.

personaly a had never trusted a mecanic the only time i go to them is
because i had to repair something that i had not the tools to do it my
self....well talking about the battery problem u can tell your self if
the battery is good or not. if the battery charge= is good/ if the
battery can't hold a charge= no good, with a bad battery, you should be
able to start the car no more that 4 times, and u wont be able to start
the car if you let the car off for more that 5 hours. thats because the
only way that a battery can be bad is because it wont be able to take a
charge. in hondas civics at least my 92 wont light on if the battery is
bad.

regarding of a battery can damage your alternator, is true!. but your
know why? i will explain you. because, went your battery is not
working, you force the alternator to give more power to try to charge
it. that extra charge that the alternator will try give to the battery
will end up with the alternator burning out. (normaly that could
happend in a perior of several hours or even days!.) NORMALY WHAT burn
out the alternator SOO FAST is a short circuit!.

personaly a had never trusted a mecanic the only time i go to them is
because i had to repair something that i had not the tools to do it my
self....well talking about the battery problem u can tell your self if
the battery is good or not. if the battery charge= is good/ if the
battery can't hold a charge= no good, with a bad battery, you should be
able to start the car no more that 4 times, and u wont be able to start
the car if you let the car off for more that 5 hours. thats because the
only way that a battery can be bad is because it wont be able to take a
charge. in hondas civics at least my 92 wont light on if the battery is
bad.

regarding of a battery can damage your alternator, is true!. but your
know why? i will explain you. because, went your battery is not
working, you force the alternator to give more power to try to charge
it. that extra charge that the alternator will try give to the battery
will end up with the alternator burning out. (normaly that could
happend in a perior of several hours or even days!.) NORMALY WHAT burn
out the alternator SOO FAST is a short circuit!.

one more thing, if you go to see a mecanic, go to one that is a
specialist in car electricity!, because alot of mecanics don't even
have any idea that are the 4 extras cables that come from the
alternator are for.

Thanks for all your help. I originally had the alternator replaced at
Canadian Tire. So I took it there back for warranty. They were
extremely unfriendly, but in the end I got the alternator replaced at
no extra cost to me and everything seems to be ok now.

This was the first time and last time I got something fixed at Canadian
Tire - it wasn't a good experience at all. It was cheap, but all the
running around wasn't worth it.

how many times have I heard that 'first and last time at CanTire'.... lol.
And I'm not being smug, as I too have had to say it before too....

Getting to the actual replacement specifics, I have a 98 civic, and my haynes
manual said to remove the driveshaft too. The manual was wrong.

After review on google, it appears the 90 civic is pretty much the same (see
http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/ar...p/t-89066.html or google 90
civic alternator). There is an alternator mounting bracket attached to the
engine with 2 bolts. Once you have freed the alternator from the bracket,
undo those 2 bolts to remove the bracket. The alternator practically falls
onto the floor.

I learned this the hard way on my civic, as I only discovered to stupid
little bracket AFTER I busted my ball joint stud trying to remove the
driveshaft. So instead of $90 to replace the alternator, it was $180 to
replace the alternator and a balljoint.... grrrrrr.....

t

ixnaum wrote:
>Thanks for all your help. I originally had the alternator replaced at
>Canadian Tire. So I took it there back for warranty. They were
>extremely unfriendly, but in the end I got the alternator replaced at
>no extra cost to me and everything seems to be ok now.
>
>This was the first time and last time I got something fixed at Canadian
>Tire - it wasn't a good experience at all. It was cheap, but all the
>running around wasn't worth it.

--
Message posted via CarKB.com
http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...-cars/200701/1

On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:16:32 -0800, ixnaum wrote:

> Thanks for all your help. I originally had the alternator replaced at
> Canadian Tire. So I took it there back for warranty. They were
> extremely unfriendly, but in the end I got the alternator replaced at
> no extra cost to me and everything seems to be ok now.
>
> This was the first time and last time I got something fixed at Canadian
> Tire - it wasn't a good experience at all. It was cheap, but all the
> running around wasn't worth it.

I've always been a guy who got cars fixed at local shops, and the
occasional chain, always trying to get the best price.

With Hondas, it is seeming that the dealer is a much better option. While
the cost is generally higher, the exclusive use of OEM parts seems pretty
important for these cars, since so many of the aftermarket parts for them
seem to be very poorly made.