Not A Bike But Need Advice

[Black Knight]

The alternator on my 08 Accord Euro shat itself recently leaving me stranded out in the country-Mrs bought me out a spare battery which got me home-I have to take car to Auto Electrician in Whangarei on Monday for a new alt-It is about one and a quarter hours from home and I am taking two fully charged batteries with me which I trust will be enough power for the trip.Any sensible comments?-I am also a bit concerned as to the amount of heat generated at the alt, after 5 minutes running its so hot you can hardly touch it,any thoughts on this in relation to the trip?-Thanks guys.

[Paul in NZ]

The alternator on my 08 Accord Euro shat itself recently leaving me stranded out in the country-Mrs bought me out a spare battery which got me home-I have to take car to Auto Electrician in Whangarei on Monday for a new alt-It is about one and a quarter hours from home and I am taking two fully charged batteries with me which I trust will be enough power for the trip.Any sensible comments?-I am also a bit concerned as to the amount of heat generated at the alt, after 5 minutes running its so hot you can hardly touch it,any thoughts on this in relation to the trip?-Thanks guys.

What else is driven by that belt?

If its like the waterpump or power steering / brakes - put it on a truck

[Black Knight]

The belt is not the problem Paul,its the alternator.The closest truck I can get is huge miles away and will cost me a packet.Prior to the battery going totally flat due to the stuffed alt,the car was going OK and no belt problems.I figure the heat in the alt is being created by a stuffed reg/rec.

[caspernz]

One option is to remove alternator and have it reconditioned by the auto sparky, then after refit, if need be you can drive car for a check-up to auto sparky.

[Black Knight]

Thanks Casper,that was my original thinking but the alt is a bastard to remove unless you have tiny jap hands, but I may persist-there are several You tube vids on it but are made to look easy,like a 10 minute job,in reality not so.

[Motu]

Regulator, or some other reason for the alt to be on max output....like a stuffed battery. Try one of your good batteries and see if the alt runs cooler. Had a brand new battery fry an alt, and it's replacement 3 weeks ago, on a dual battery setup, it was one of the last things to look at.

[Paul in NZ]

if the alt is the only thing driven by the belt - cut the damn thing

[Akzle]

ehhh. what are teh voltages?

hot isn't a good sign. and it's new enough to have computers and other such gay shit which might cook under/over voltage. normally i'd recomend driving with the lights on to even out the current draw but if it's not charging that might again leave you roadside.


buy a magna bro.

[Coldrider]

If the alternator isn't charging, and the belt is driving nothing else, like water pump etc, take the belt off.alt Problems are the small bearing melting the plastic housing away, siezing, or more commonly brushes wearng down or diodes back feeding.

[neels]

Had the same thing on my terrano, battery was flat and flattened a replacement, stuck a clamp meter on and it was sucking 3A with everything turned off.

Ran the thing after the battery change for about half an hour to get it home, thing was hot because it was running max output from the regulator to try and get the voltage up to what it should be with fucked rectifier. Auto sparky reckoned too much longer and it would have cooked the windings and been completely fucked.

Safe options are to remove the belt, or if you can't do that take it off completely.

[awayatc]

Nothing I know of gets better by hoping it won't be bad enough to get worse.....
Unless you know for sure what the problem is , a tow truck before hand may be cheap by comparison....

AA road assist?

[Black Knight]

Thanks guys-Motu,the alt gets hot regardless of which of 3 fully charged batts-Paul and Coldrider the belt drives a host of other things,cant cut it.Akzle,nil voltage (alt does not charge)-Neels,I have already decided the Alt is stuffed and new one is waiting for me at Auto Electrician.Awayatc-I am starting to think you are right-ummm AA road assist,but twice in a week might be a big ask.

[Honest Andy]

I'll bet the belt runs something else, but the water pump is the only other important thing. You can still drive it without power steering and aircon.

Taking the alt off and delivering to the sparky is the best but yeah, you do need small hands. And it'll be a bit cheaper if the sparky doesn't have to do it.

If it's all too hard then take the big positive wire off the alternator, tape it up REALLY well and tie it to something that isn't too hot.
Then go for it
But take your phone and some good walking brogues...

[aws]

Don't know much about the hot alternator, but I'd expect you could go about 1.5 hrs on a good fully charged battery in daytime. I once drove an old Alfetta from South Auckland to Matamata, mostly at night before I discovered that my alternator wasn't charging. I know I got that far because I'd just left the auto electrician who had fixed someone elses stuff up of an alternator repair - or so I thought...

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[Akzle]

some hot-off-the-press advice, don't drive through town today, i dont know who put what in the water supply, but there are some fucken crackhead drivers loose today

[george formby]

If you get the runaround in Whangas BK, I did, their is a bloke just down the road from me who is a black belt auto sparky.

I sent off my DT starter motor to Bindons and it lasted 3 starts, $100 a start... Clyde, down the road, put in heavy duty brushes and new bearings 4 years ago for $100. It's never missed a beat. I gave him the starter motor on Christmas eve and his daughter returned it the next day.:gob: Freshly painted, too.

[pete376403]

My 03 Accord (2.4 so may be different if the OP has a V6) has electric power steering so wouldn't imagine they've gone back to a belt driven pump. Serpentine poly vee belt drives alternator, water pump and power steering

[Black Knight]

some hot-off-the-press advice, don't drive through town today, i dont know who put what in the water supply, but there are some fucken crackhead drivers loose today

Standard day in Fongers eh Ax?

[Black Knight]

If you get the runaround in Whangas BK, I did, their is a bloke just down the road from me who is a black belt auto sparky.

I sent off my DT starter motor to Bindons and it lasted 3 starts, $100 a start... Clyde, down the road, put in heavy duty brushes and new bearings 4 years ago for $100. It's never missed a beat. I gave him the starter motor on Christmas eve and his daughter returned it the next day.:gob: Freshly painted, too.

Thanks Mark-a bit late mate I have already booked it in to a highly recommended guy in Fongers,just have to make sure I get there OK.

[Black Knight]

My 03 Accord (2.4 so may be different if the OP has a V6) has electric power steering so wouldn't imagine they've gone back to a belt driven pump. Serpentine poly vee belt drives alternator, water pump and power steering

Mine is the same as yours Pete except an 08-with 3 batteries on board,main power wire disconnected from the Alt in case its dragging amps out of the battery due to fault,fingers crossed it dosent rain and the GF following as needs to shop,I think I should be fine.

[Laava]

Chris just unplug the alternator. You going to Autotech?

Edit, just read the above post, you are onto it!

[Black Knight]

Yep Al,Auto Tech-great outfit but not cheap--Thanks all for the advice fellas,the brogues were not required but only just.The first battery 600amp got me to Kamo where I needed a pee and a battery swap-then whoa Nellie,rush hour in Kamo with massive queues at the first set of lights took me half an hour of stop start driving to reach Auto Tech and battery was flat as on arrival.New alt fitted and I'm on my way albeit without any pension money for the next 3 weeks.Anyhoo thanks again for all the good advice.