Battery Light??

[cody_stl]

Kay so headlights are working....now another problem....story of my life. So i just recently got my A/C Running, nice and cold. A cheap battery i had in the car also darn near exploded while in the civic. It was an off brand battery, but i bought the biggest i could fit under the hood. Which still wasn't many more CCA, stock is 405 i think, this one was 575 i believe. i did it in hopes of taking some strain off my Audio system. I have a 1000+ watt amp, clarion head, and 2 10's. The new battery seemed to take some strain off, (less dimming of the lights when the bass hits, and easier starting). then one day a foul smell turned out to be the battery hissing and threatening to erupt. So i removed it and replaced it with the stock sized battery, an Everstart from Wally-World (Wal-Mart). After this happened was when i finally had sucess with getting my A/c working. Now my battery light has been blinking on and off and staying on for 30 seconds, then back off, then staying on 2 minutes, then back off. but mostly light flickering. Now the battery light indicates the car is drawing energy from the battery when it should be drawing from alternator correct? I messed around with everything in the car to try and pin point what was making it happen,because it was happening with more and more frequency. Turns out when i turn my new found A/C off, the light makes no appearance! No Ac, No Light! Averaging 100+ here the last few weeks, with 50+% humidity, i AM GOING to have AC. My question being....what the hell? Could putting a new oversized battery back in help this? i plan on doing it anyway, cause with the stock battery, and the bass bumping, oncoming traffic thinks i am FLASHING them! And the alternator is only 9 months old or so, i know it has the right sized pulley cause i replaced the old one and matched it up with the new one. The Alt is from O'Reillys, which is the crappiest place to buy parts i now know, and you can quote me on that! I was thinking maybe replacing the old grounds on my engine, maybe that could help with the juice issue, and if all else fails get another alternator. ut i am glad to think that i am pretty sure it isnt the sound system causing the problem, cause as soon as i flip off the AC the light goes out, and vice a versa. Any help would be appreciated.

[FrodoGT]

Your alternator is bad, period. Replace it or have it rebuilt, it sounds like the brushes are bad. I had mine rebrushed for 20 bucks. The reason your AC is making it come on and off is because the clutch draws a decent amount of power and your amp draw goes high enough to trip the light..

Your audio system killed your alternator after your battery took a dump, get an optima and a capacitor, 2 farad at least.

[thefooshmeister]

yeah definately get a cap instead of a bigger battery..the optimas are really nice..

[PaulD]

caps are just another load on the alternator ....... don't waste your money

[viper-blue]

I'm glad to have an expert point that out paulD...Most audio guys agree these things are garbage. Aparently they help with mega wattage systems, but they are for sure a load on the alternator...and if your driving around with it cranked it draws on your battery after you've turned it off. Not that civics need much juice to start anyhow, but I've never noticed much as far as stiffer bass...I'm sure some would disagree, but I've never noticed and have installed many for my boys. Lol, they are stubborn though, just want to add more and more thinking it will make the system louder. Upgrading the output on the alt and getting a high quality regulator is a much better investment

[PaulD]

the nature of them means they will be useless for bass, that's why ALL the heavy hitters for spl comps back in the early 90's put them in their vehicles for less than 1 season. They figured out that in most cases they actually LOST a little spl. The only thing they can help with is reproduction of transient peaks in an SQ (sound quality) car.

I go to comps pretty regularly, and I can't remember the last really loud vehicle I saw with caps.

[cody_stl]

OK! Yet again my car pisses me off! So, i stated earlier that 2 weeks ago i had a 6 month old battery go out, replaced it with the stock sized Everstart. Now 2 weeks later this battery is hissing and stinking like a bastard! The battery light is still doing it's on off thing. at first we thought the alternator wasn't charging enough and the light was on because power was being taken from my battery. Now my friend says the light will also come on if the alternator is OVER charging the battery, true or false? He also says the battery hissing,leaking,stinking is signs that the alternator is over charging and said till it is fixed i should drive with headlights on, A/C on, radio on, to draw as much power as i can so it doesn't explode the battery? I have no doubt about the alternator being F*%ked
up because it's an o'reilly's refurb. Before i go to napa and replace i wanna make sure this will fix the problem. Any help please, driving a loner till payday, need some help, second opinion.

[viper-blue]

Definately if the regulator on the alternator goes bad it will cause overcharging. A bad cell in the battery will cause the same problem. Put a voltage tester on the battery when the engine is off and while its running..Should be around 12-12.5 volts with engine off and 13.5-14.5 with the engine on...if your getting way over 14.5 with the engine on it could be bad regulator. Or you could by pass that all and have the new battery load tested at wally's..they should do it free of charge since you bought it there..