for a 1999 Accord?

Thanks!

 

When your altenator goes bad its usually easiest to tell at night when you are running your headlights, and when you turn on things that you power like the heater, or a sound system, or other stuff like that and you notice your headlights/dashlights go dim.

Or just one morning you go out to start your car and it doesnt start.

 

oh shoot and i was wondering the exact thing u just describe above. damn that suck i guess i better start looking. whenever i try to power the windows up the headlight dim grrrr i had a feeling it was the alternator but now is for sure. my car has 83,000 miles exactly righ now and i dont think the alternator has been ever change i guess is time?

 

it could just be the battery. The exact same thing you explained happens when the battery is about to die. Most of the time batteries go out way before the alternator, so i would try to change batteries before alternators just for cost sakes.

 

hey one quick question. should i go with genuine honda alternator or any other aftermark? there is like a $200 diff between brands. and should i wait until it die completely or when i am having problem turning the car on? as of righ now zero problem but the lights do dim. thanks for ur reply

 

dude, trust me, ITS NOT YOUR ALTERNATOR! If you had to buy a new alternator ever 83,000 miles, no one would ever buy hondas! But if you just haaaave to burn money, at least goto a mechanic and get a diagnostic to see if it is your alternator (which im almost completely sure that its your battery). I have 114k miles on my car, with 2 12's and a 1000 watt amp that i have on constantly, and my alternator is still 100% fine. So if your alternator did somehow go out, i would go back to your dealer and have them give you a new one because it would be a faulty alty.

 

i just got a brand new battery this yr when i did all the timing belts water pump etc... service. i notice the headlight dim before i even install the new battery. i have stock audio heh

 

take it to honda service, they'll put it on a machine and tell u if your alternator is putting out the power it should and if it's bad. they shouldn't charge u for that either

 

with the car running, unhook the negative wire from the battery. if you notice a huge difference, you're alternator os bad, if not look for other problems

 

For what alternator your going to get depends on your uses. If you have a car that has most factory stuff (i.e. Not a 1000 watt amp, subs,......) then I would probably go with the regular alternator. But if you are going to have those types of high power systems in your car its better to get the bigger alternator so you dont kill your battery.

When i said if you lights dim earlier I mean if the go dim and they stay that way. Whenever you turn something on in your car there will always be a sudden dim in the lights. Like at night with your lights on and you turn on the heat, the lights go dim, if you turn the heat on and the lights go dim for a second and come back to there normal brightness the you should be ok, but if they go dim and they stay dim then you probably have a problem.

I would get the alternator checked, cause if the alternator is bad and you are running soley on the battery, dont be surprised if you are driving and suddenly the car just stops running. When my alternator when bad on my car my first clues were things like the windows didn't go down fast anymore when the engine was running, and right before the battery gave out my stereo just stopped running cause the engine was takin all the power, the dash electronics sometimes go a little funky. I actually drove with a bad alternator for about 4 days before the battery gave out on me, then i had to get towed :doh:

If you know but about electronics you could even test the alternator output with a multimeter.

Hope this helps