alterntaor overcharging?

[Jesus Garcia]

Have a 2001 Civic LX. Battery light came on during morning commute then turned off after awhile. SRS light now turns on and stays on. Checked battery with multimeter and shows charge above 13 volts. Checked battery while car running and multimeter shows above 17 volts. Is alternator bad? Is it ok to continue running car with overcharging alternator will?

Topic

[Andrew Phillips]

[quote=”jgguerro” post=136526] Is alternator bad? [/quote]
Sounds like it.

Is it ok to continue running car with overcharging alternator will?

No. It should be corrected as soon as possible to prevent damage to battery and computer.

[Alex]

The charging system is no longer regulating properly. At 17+ volts, it can boil and destroy your battery, and potentially damage other electronics in the car. Don’t drive it any more until this is fixed.
The SRS light worries me that damage may already be done to that system, though it might just be acting up because it sees weird voltages.

Whether the alternator itself is bad depends on where the charge regulator is on your vehicle. On some vehicles it is part of the alternator, and others it is a separate device. If part of alternator, the whole thing may need to be replaced. Someone with better knowledge of the specifics of this model would have more information about that.

If you feel comfortable, trace the wires going to the alternator and make sure nothing is loose, corroded, burned, etc. Same thing with the cables at the battery itself. Report back what you find.

Also, what country are you in? There can be differences between cars sold in different parts of the world that could affect what we are dealing with and our answers.

[Author]

Replies