90 Accord alternator replacement

Hi all,

My local Crappy Tire dealer has quoted me 2.4 hrs labour to replace the
alternator in my 90 accord...says the driveshaft may have to be removed. Sounds
like a load of crap to me...oh why do I keep going back to them?!

TIA
DB

 

(Dennyboy) spake unto the masses in

If it's anything like that year of Integra, they're telling the truth.

What's wrong with the alternator? If it's just brushes, that can be done
without removing the alternator.

 

He's confusing your accord with the older bodystyle

 

I seem to have the classic intermittent battery light problem (started a week
ago), running total loss ignition for portions of every car trip, today being
the worst..almost stranded but after 10 mins it started again and the light
stayed off, battery charged up before getting to work. I've had the car into
the shop twice during the past week...they said it was the battery and replaced
it (it was 7 years old...had run its course...but had never failed me). This
did not solve the problem and since the alternator is more that 10 years old
(actually it might be original, car has 283K km) its a safe bet thats where the
problem is. Since the weather has been -20 to -30 lately (northern Ontario) I
don't much feel like playing around with it. Anyway I haven't been able to find
a brush kit in town. The Honda dealer doesn't have them. If I pull it off
myself I could get a local shop to rebuild it for $180. But Crappy Tire has one
for $198 so I'm going to go with that and be done with it (hopefully). My
haynes manual doesn't say anything about having to remove the axle. The alt
looks pretty accessible from up top. Possibly there is some configuration of
90-93 accord that would require getting at it from below?

DB

 

I just had mine done in my 90 Accord, too cold to fool with it myself....
Axle does not have to come out, but the power steering pump has to to access
the alt.
Figure 1.5 hrs labour, spend $16 on a new drive belt too.
How north are you?, I bought a used alt for $40 in Scarborough.
When my battery light was on, I found that if I tapped the alt with a
wrench, it would turn on and start charging... light out, but eventually it
would have failed for good.
I had the same symptoms you described, even changed the battery first... so
far, so good with the new(used) alternator.

 

no, you don't have to remove the driveshaft. you just move the tensioner
bolt, the bolt that holds the alternator, remove the alternator belt and
wires and remove the alternator. changing brushes is also quite easy - took
me about 1 hour to remove alternator, change brushes and reinstall the
alternator again.

 

(Dennyboy) spake unto the masses in

Brushes!!


Two years ago, I bought a pair of new brushes for $5 cash at a local
rebuilders, pulled the brush holder from my alternator and soldered the new
brushes into the old brush holder. Been fine ever since.

I did mine in my driveway in January. The temperature unaccountably went up
to freezing, so I had a relatively balmy time of it.

A Toyota dealer will. Toyota's use the same ND alternator. It's called a
Brush Holder. About $20. I don't know the part number. I know it's too cold
for this, but if you could, it would be best to bring it in so they can
match it.

It could be that the young monkeys at Crappy Tire just looked it up in the
wrong manual. Except for Motorvac services, my car NEVER sees the inside of
a Canadian Tire repair bay.

 

==============

Canadian Tire is great for (purchasing) some things, but I'd scarcely
trust them to change a tire, let alone an alternator, and certainly not
a HONDA alternator.

Gives me hemmorhoids just thinking about dealing with their service
people. Ewww!

'Curly'

===============

 

I seem to have the classic intermittent battery light problem (started a
week

The bad alternator will weaken your new battery too.
If you discharge your battery completely, it sounds like you already did, it
will never charge back to its original power.
The guys at the garage are clowns and went for a quick sale. A car cannot
stall because of bad battery. Once it is started, you can remove the battery
completely if you want. For sure, if you drove your car to the garage with a
bad alternator, the battery would show weak and it is just too easy to
conclude that the battery is the problem.

 

No, Canadian Tire mechanics are generally just young and very
inexperienced.

NEVER DO THIS!!!!! NEVER NEVER!


This tip was valid in the days of points-and-condenser ignition, but
definitely NOT these days. Driving around with the battery out of the
circuit will do damage to electronic ignition components.

 

Didn't know that. But this was just to say that the battery power is not
needed anymore once the engine is running.
It is possible that opening the circuit and changing the impendence might
affect other components.

 

This does sound like a "brushes" problem.

I replaced the brushes in a Mazda by pulling the old ones out and taking
them into the local As-long-as-it's-Delco parts store. They, of course,
had no replacement brushes listed, but let me fish around in the parts that
they did have. I found some that were about the right length but too large
in thickness and width. I scrubbed off the excess on the sidewalk until
they slid easily in the holders and reassembled it all. I don't remember
how many years that worked before I sold the car.

Brushes are pretty much chunks of carbon with connecting flexy wires.
Sometimes the connectors are special, but as I recall these were just
screw terminals, and they might have been the right size.

 

Have you noticed that their Rice Boy stuff is kept...BEHIND BARS? Even
something as cheap as a $4.99 set of blue light bulbs.

I was told by one store manager that this was because they had a major
problem with "shrinkage" before they installed the cages. A little window
into the mind of your average Rice Boy...

If you thought the mechainics were inexperienced, you should try their
service advisors.

 

Yeah, but you can order just about _anything_ now. Just picked up a
www.wheelskins.com steering wheel cover for about 50 bones, taxes in. Took
two days to get to Ottawa. I'll be installing it tommorrow...but my GOD does
it ever feel nice! Quality piece.

We'll see what kind of price I can get on a cat-back exhaust.

Steve
91 EX-R

 

For the sake of brevity, I neglected to mention some other details of this
recent Crappy Tire experience...but what the hell here goes....

When I picked up the car after the install of the battery I immediately noticed
wind noise coming from the drivers window. Sure enough, there was a gap..the
wind was out of its rubber channel down by the side view mirror. The window
would only move down about half a cm and then back up (power windows). When I
got to work I called them and the service advisor admitted they had to get the
window down in order to push the car inside (?!?!?!?). Since I had limped in,
the battery had been discharged (dead) and the car sat outside for 4 hrs in -25
deg weather. So, I surmise the mechanic forced the window down !! so he could
push and steer with the door closed. Don't know how he got the window up again,
by power or just pulling it back up, but they sent me on my merry way without
telling me the window was screwed!! When I went back the story changed "how
cold it was and the window must have been frozen etc etc etc...what a laugh! On
the drive back to them the battery light came back on (now I was really
pissed!). The first thing the service advisor said to me was, "you know, we
find that the battery often fails at the same time as the alternator" (!!) I
almost laughed in his face. Anyway, they decided they needed to keep the car
overnight in order to get that battery light to act up and fix the window.
<mysteriously, the bat light never ever came on inside the shop, only when the
car was outside and I was driving> Next day they called and said the window was
fixed "it somehow had skipped out of its channel....wow that darn cold weather
did that" . The bat light never came on so they did nothing further on that
front. So I picked uo the car and got about a click away, drivers side window
now works perfectly as it did before. Decided to check the rest of the
windows...all dead!! Back I go, turns out our intrepid CT monkey had'nt pugged
all the connectors back inside the door <"coulda sworn I plugged those all
back"> So I'm off again...within 3 days I was back and insisted they change the
alternator. They did that this morning and bingo problem fixed. The service
advisor made a point of telling me, with relish, that the battery light still
never came on for them.

Needless to say, I think that was my last visit to the CT service center. The
only reason this time was the cold weather. I'll be house shopping in a few
months and its gunna have a garage!

DB

 

(Dennyboy) spake unto the masses in

<snip typical tale of woe>

Like I said, they are very inexperienced. I suspect they have quite a
turnover and are used as a "first job" by new mechanics.

My own favorite story is when a tire shop allowed our MR2 to fall off the
jack while they were working on it one winter day. The guy jacked it up
incorrectly, and the jack slipped inside the engine compartment on the
passenger side, punching in several components as it did.

The tire shop boss said nothing to me when I picked up the car (it turned
out later that his guys had hidden it from him). I only noticed when I went
to drive off. The shift lever markings did not line up with the shift
quadrant, and the shifting was strangely rubbery. I suspected something
right away, had a look underneath, and sure enough, it looked like the
splash pan had been pushed in.

I took it to Canadian Tire as it was the closest place open, hoping to get
it up on their hoist and confirm the damage and see what could be done
about it.

The "Service Advisor" was clueless and had no idea what I was trying to
explain, inspite of my several patient attempts. After he had rewritten the
work order three times, getting the symptoms wrong each time, I asked for
the paper and wrote the symptoms myself. He was pretty mad.

Out the car went to the mechanic, in full view of me through the windows.
The young fellow never put it on the hoist, but instead immediately took it
for a spin. He came back with the diagnosis (issued through the Service
Advisor) that I needed a new transmission.

I was shocked. I told the Advisor that his monkey had never even put the
car up on the hoist to assess my suspicion of something being bent. I asked
if I could go into the shop and deal with the mechanic myself. He grumpily
said "go ahead".

It took me a few minutes of persuasion before the young guy would consent
to hoisting the car. He kept insisting he had seen this before and knew
what it was. Up the car went, and I pointed out the punch-in I had
partially seen earlier that day.

"Oh", he says. "I didn't notice that". "Did you read the work order", I
asked, "which pointed out that the splash pan had been punched in, and that
I suspected that the car had fallen off a jack"? No answer.

He removed the splash pan enough to see well inside and I noticed that the
shift linkage was bent. I asked him to bend it straight again, which he
did. Problem solved.

Yes I had to pay for it.

 

Ok I hate to admit it, but I've got another one (doesn't involve a Honda...maybe
I should crosspost to chrysler group hmmm)...

About 3 yrs ago, after hearing and reading all the woes of people with failed
Chrysler minivan auto trannys, I took my caravan to Crappy Tire for a tranny
fluid change. I asked them to use the chrysler/mopar specific fluid they had on
the shelf..atf3 or 4 I can't remember now. I'd heard that the caravan trannys
were very particular about the fluid...the wrong fluid could cause problems.

Nothing was wrong with the tranny when i went in...afterwards I immediately (in
the CT parking lot) noticed something was different. When selecting D, the
tranny now hesitated slightly before engaging. I immediately suspected they had
used the wrong fluid...I went back in to complain but they swore they used the
right stuff...I had them test drive it...they thought every thing was fine (of
course). I drove away not very happy...I seem to recall the colour of the fluid
was correct ..but anyway within 3 days I had the fluid changed again this time
at Chrysler. I also asked them to check the tranny out for any problem...they
gave it a clean bill of health. But to no avail...the tranny got worse and
worse until within 3 months I was in to Chrysler getting it rebuilt.

Cost me $1000, (which is cheap I hear) I think they were easy on me because I
complained bitterly that they should have caught this problem 3 months earlier
(not that it would have made much diff)

Moral of the story...avoid Canadian Tire and Chrysler minivans!!!
but i've got a short memory and took my Honda there urghhh!!

DB

 

Hell, avoid Crapsler altogether. My friend has a 2004 Sebring that has
had many problems since she bought it last summer. It wouldn't even start
up on a few occasions in the deep freezes we've been having up here. She
was dumbfounded that her new car wouldn't start up in the cold while my
'93 Accord started up with no problem. And I know hers is not the only
newer Sebring with problems.