ok so we have a 2004 Honda civic and we are having a bit of issue. Im not sure what is wrong but my dad thinks it may be the alternator. I would drive down the road and the dash lights and the gages would shut off and five minutes later the car would act like its out of gas and sputtering down the road. took it to pepboys and they replaced the positive terminal and two belts. found out the wrong battery was installed at walmart long story short…we got a new battery and drove about 200 miles and it did the same thing…the hood prop was resting on the positive terminal and was arcing my hood. could it be the alternator or more of an electrical problem due to the arcing? please help
If the hood prop grounded the positive battery terminal it’s going to draw all the power from the battery and the alternator. This is basically an arc welder under the hood.
Keep the prop rod off the battery terminal and drive the vehicle. And let’s hope it didn’t damage the alternator.
Tester
Shorting out the battery like that could damage an alternator diode. It could damage other tings, like the ECM or other expensive electronics gadget too. But cross your fingers, it may just be the alternator. Sometimes if just one alternator diode is on the fritz, the electrical system will appear to be ok until extra power is demanded for some reason. That may be what you are experiencing. Many retail auto parts stores will test your alternator output for free. Might be worth a shot. Ask them to do a load test on the battery too.