Honda Car Forum

New to this group - have UK june 90 accord 20li

The battery warning lamp has begun to stay on at start up - especially
when very cold weather, then goes off OK once the car is warmed up a
while. Searching posts here - I'm suspecting brushes or bad
connection.The belts were replaced a while back and are tight.

Strangely, the ABS light is also coming on with it sometimes, then
going off with it. This I really don't understand, as this only comes
on if I have a fault on the brake light, bulb etc.

With regard connections - does the alt.charging wire go to battery
terminal or to the starter motor pos. I have an extra small gauge wire
connecting in to the main battery pos terminal?

On the brushes - are these serviceable ? I have air con as well, so to
get the thing out, just to check it over, is a real pain.

I haven't yet tried a mult meter across the battery terminals at tick
over with the light ON - as its stopped doing it now the weather is
warmer ! I was getting 14.2 volts on the old battery with engine
running at start up - so there would seem no problem when it is ok.
The real test would be the voltage at the battery with the light ON,
engine running, but the last couple of days its ok.
Any tips for removing the alternator on UK right hand drive, air con
model - I have heard its awkward !
Thanks - Geoff, Bristol UK

geoffs90accord wrote:
> New to this group - have UK june 90 accord 20li
>
> The battery warning lamp has begun to stay on at start up - especially
> when very cold weather, then goes off OK once the car is warmed up a
> while. Searching posts here - I'm suspecting brushes or bad
> connection.The belts were replaced a while back and are tight.
>
> Strangely, the ABS light is also coming on with it sometimes, then
> going off with it. This I really don't understand, as this only comes
> on if I have a fault on the brake light, bulb etc.
>
> With regard connections - does the alt.charging wire go to battery
> terminal or to the starter motor pos. I have an extra small gauge wire
> connecting in to the main battery pos terminal?
>
> On the brushes - are these serviceable ? I have air con as well, so to
> get the thing out, just to check it over, is a real pain.
>
> I haven't yet tried a mult meter across the battery terminals at tick
> over with the light ON - as its stopped doing it now the weather is
> warmer ! I was getting 14.2 volts on the old battery with engine
> running at start up - so there would seem no problem when it is ok.
> The real test would be the voltage at the battery with the light ON,
> engine running, but the last couple of days its ok.
> Any tips for removing the alternator on UK right hand drive, air con
> model - I have heard its awkward !
> Thanks - Geoff, Bristol UK

I'd first do what you are about to do and check the voltage on the
battery with the car running. It may not be the alternator at all
because the ABS is not really related to it. Of course, it could be
that you are having two problems (alternator and ABS) but that is far
less likely to happen at the very same time.

You may want to check the connections from the battery to the
alternator -- they should be fairly direct and certainly not very thin
gauge wire.
Also check the ground. You could try using a booster cable to determine
wheter you have a bad ground somewhere or not: use the negative (black)
side only and let the positive (red) side dangle, not hooking it up to
anything.
Place the black clamp on your battery terminal and start bridging
points that should be grounded (make sure that they should be grounded,
because you could do damage if they are normally not grounded).
For instance, go from the battery (-) to the chassis, then to the
engine, to the alternator, possibly to frame piece in your dash. When
you bridge and the symptom disappears, you have found youself a clue as
to what ground connection is not making good contact. You will
obviously still need to find this connection, because driving around
with a booster cable dangling around your engine compartment looks
pretty silly

Remco