Is my alternator bad?

Topics that apply to all 92-95 civics
 Reply
User avatar

Is my alternator bad?

By bigJOE671
- Sun Sep 23, 2012 2:03 am #316257 94 Civic Si
JDM B16A OB0

Had this car for 17 months

Was driving on the highway for about 3 minutes at 3K RPM going 60mph. Then was slowing to a red light I put my transmission in neutral and I just saw my rpm hit 0:thud: So I got her started with the help of a fellow driver via push start. The car tried to die a couple times whenever I put the car in neutral to slow down at a traffic light so I just held my RPM's near 2000RPM.

Battery light is NOT on
Voltage at idle (900 RPM)with no accesories on: 12.65
Voltage at 2000 RPPM with no accesories on: 12.81
Volatge at idle with headlights, defroster, radio, and domelight on: 11.68

Is my alternator bad?
Is there any other tests I can do?
if it is my alternator...I don't know which one to order since I have a JDM B16A and the alternator?
User avatar

By asianrob
- Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:30 pm #316271 pull it and get it tested at the auto parts store.

if its bad you can use any 90-95 B series alternators ( iirc the 90-91 Integra alternators share the same plug not sure tho its been a while) but any OBD1 B series alternator will work. keep your old alternator and rebuild it.

By HeikDiesel
- Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:08 pm #316478 If you can find someone with an amp clamp and a meter, have them test the output wire off the alternator. Otherwise, pull it off and bench test as advised.
User avatar

By bigJOE671
- Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:17 pm #316486 First off my car had a no start issue which led me to troubleshoot a couple things.

First off was to check my battery's voltage: 11:89...not good in my book. So I charged it. BAM! voltage within limits after a couple hours. I think it was fixed. After 2 days of it being charged It didn't want to start again! :x Now I buy a new battery just to make sure it wasn't the battery. So I did some research.

Next test that I did was a parastic draw test. Results were 111ma of draw. Troubleshooted down to my dome light. With dome light in door position and door closed it was pulling that amount of miliamps. In the off position, it was only pulling 24-27miliamps. Mind you I have a 2-way paging alarm. So I charged up my battery again and left the dome light in the off position. Next thing you know it didn't want to start the next day. :x FML!

So now I'm thinking I got a short or something. So I disconnect my alarm and the parastic draw test shows 7ma of draw. Charged up battery again cuz it was low and now she starts again :) Next day she started but it was kind of weak if you ask me. So now I'm thinking its my charging system.

I did a couple of test with my charging system.
idling at 900rpm no accessories on: 12.28 volts
idling at 900rpm with accessories on: 11.86 volts
@ 2000rpm no accesories on: 12.64 volts

Now I think my alternator is bad :x I put the results of this text on a couple of forums and they tell me my alternator is dying and they said I should change it. As I was doing more research I came across an alternator thread where a guy was having the same voltage issue as me. He changed his alternator and still got the same results. :?

I don't feel like spending $100+ and not fixing the problem. Some they had a couple more tests like checking for continuity between the alternator and + battery connector. Also to look at grounds.

My test between alternator connector and battery connector yielded .02 ohms of resistance...which seemed pretty good to me. Next was to look at my engine bay grounds. I FOUND THEM ALL CORRODED!!!! Seems like the problem. So I cleaned the - battery terminal to body which was corroded. Same with the transmission to the chassis and the one with the thermostat gound was not in great shape.

Finally when I did all of that I decided to do a parastic draw test. Results: 3ma of draw compared to a week earlier which was 7ma of draw.

Now I started my car with the battery volts @ 12.31 which is below average. It started like when I first hot her! Pretty Fast! So I did the check for the charging system

idling with no accessories on 14.28 volts
idling with headlight, AC, radio, and defroster on 14.10 volts.

Damn that was a stressful problem!
User avatar

By Apexracing
- Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:39 am #316522 Thanks for posting your results :thumb:
 Reply
Return to Chassis - General