89 Accord Alternator Light Flashes

Mar 07, 2006 6 Replies
N

Every now and then in the morning, my 89 accord dx will have the battery light flash when I step on the brakes and the radio goes out momentarily. It will sometime flash when driving. After its run for a while it is fine. I have a new battery, and when I checked the voltage to see if it is charging, it is fine at 14.5 volts. Has anybody encountered this before? The car has 156,000 miles with original alternator. I'm thinking that it may be the brushes in the alternator. Could it be a loose connection, if so where? I doubt that it is the regulator as my experience is that they are usually good or bad, not intermittent. Any help would be appreciated.


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E

"nospam" wrote

Note that this warning lamp misleadingly has a battery icon on it. The lamp, when lit, actually denotes a problem with the charging (and so alternator) system.

Yes, the brushes are a //very// strong possibility for an alternator this old. See

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(about one-third of the way down for alternator focus) for discussion of this based on reading here and a bit of my own experience.

Yes, that's possible, but my money is on either bad brushes, bad bearings, or both.

The two alternator terminal connections are pretty secure ones, so I'd start at the battery terminals. Disconnect, clean with a solution of baking soda and water, and re-secure the cables.

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T

nospam wrote in news:440d8b55$0$17684$ snipped-for-privacy@titian.nntpserver.com:

Alternator brushes almost 100%.

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M

150K miles is a good life for brushes. As Elle and TeGGeR say, you can bet that's the problem. The symptoms are a geat fit, too.

Mike

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M

Elle, is your web page on the alternator ready for prime time yet? It looked really good the last I saw but there were a couple pieces To Do.

Mike

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E

"Michael Pardee" wrote

Thanks, yes, the link above is good. If there's more input for this site, I'm open to additions. Eric was going to get back to me with info on some starter solenoid contacts, for one, which I think is worth at least a footnote at this site.

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M

Sorry - I didn't notice you had already posted the link. Stupid brain!

Mike

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