Wifes Honda - Charging system this time!

[Jim Oaks]

I hate this car.

2001 Honda Civic

This time it's the charging system. She spun on the ice on a Sunday (2 weeks ago) and went front first in to a guard rail.

Monday she drove to work (works 24-hour shift). Tuesday morning she started to come home and her car died. Battery went dead. Not charging. Had battery tested and replaced it. Drove the car over to the parts store. Verified, not charging.

Drove it home and checked the voltage with a meter. Now it's putting out a charge (15+ volts).

OK, maybe hitting the guardrail knocked something loose. If it's charging, don't mess with it.

Yesterday she went to work. This morning her battery light came on while she was driving home.

CHecked it with a meter. Not putting out a charge.

WTF?

Alternator and battery ground show 0 resistance. Good ground.

Alternator shows 12 volts coming in to the internal voltage regulator from ignition.

I thought it was a bad connection since it quit charging, started charging and then quit again. I figured hitting the guardrail jarred something loose.

Now I'm clueless. Parts stores suck. I know if I take it in they'll tell me the alternator is bad. A new one is $150.00.

I just can't figure out the whole not charging / charging / not charging thing.

You would think it would either charge or not charge.

I still think it has something to do with hitting the guardrail. This didn't start until that happened.

 

[LearjetMinako]

Could be the regulator brushes are not contacting.

 

[Will]

Jim, I'll try to get the test procedures for our '05 Pilot scanned to see if that helps. I don't know how similar they are.

Edit. These are the troubleshooting pages for most of the charging system. Might help you discover what got knocked loose.

 

[snake]

Could be the guardrail hit, could be the brushes worn down. The good news is they sell just the brushes and they aren't expensive or a pain in the ass to replace. Might be the regulator too. Try wiggling all the cables whilst someone is in the car watching the charge light 4 u- might be a bad connection somewhere.

I'm somewhat of a honda fan, work on 'em all the time, but they aren't perfect- and they've made some shitty cars too.