Hey guys,

I was wondering if any you guys have experienced this before. Here is what happened:

While driving down the highway, I noticed the airbag warning light came on. I thought nothing of it and would check it out later. But then about five minutes later, the ABS light came on, and a moment later the BRAKE warning light came on. After that, the radio went out (tried to turn it back on and it asked for the Radio CODE). I immediately exited and safely parked and was not able to start the car after that.

Is this an alternator problem or a bad battery? If it was the alternator, wouldn't I have received the Battery warning light indicating the battery isn't charging correctly? I checked the serpentine belt, and it's still intact.

I need your advice before I put out $200 for a new alternator.

Car is 2004 Accord with roughly 70K miles.

Thank you

 

Take the battery to any auto parts store and have them test it. It's not always the battery, but it's always the battery.

Rule out the easy and cheap fix before you touch the alternator.

 

^^^ I agree. It's almost certainly the alternator or something else in the charging system that's bad. If the battery was so bad, it probably would not have been able to start your car to begin with. But checking the battery is cheap/free. So check the battery and rule that out first.

Andrew

 

i dont think it is either, the battery or the alternator. Something else causing these issues. Battery issue would not do anything(warning lights wise) at all till you try to start the car.

 

I have the same Accord right now with twice your mileage, nothing like this happened to me before. BUT, I had a 02 Civic a while ago, and the battery on that would die. It was alterntor. The same thing would happen to me, light would go on and off, radio would go off, lights dim. ANd then would turn off.

And since you said the radio code came on, that means that the radio lost power from battery. coz in those accords, you have to put in the code everytime you unhook the battery.

 

This IS the alternator. If it were just the battery then it would not have died while driving. The airbag and abs lights came on because the car shuts down non-essential systems to save power when it is about to die.

Replace the alternator, charge the battery, and hope that draining the battery all the way didn't kill that too.

 

When I was driving the viper back from texas I almost got stranded by the battery. I have a battery voltage gauge and it will fall to 10.5 volts and alarm would go off and then it would jump back up to 14 or so. This would happen every few minutes. I don't know what was really going on and I thought it was maybe the alternator, but it ended up just being a bad battery. It tried to leave me stranded in the middle of the arizona desert, but we made it. I got a new battery and it's been great ever since.

 

I don't think that's accurate. If the voltage falls below a certain point, it is the same as turning the car off and putting it in accessory. The lights came on because that's what they do at start up. I'd bet money.

 

OP will you go get your goddamn battery checked already so we find out the answer?

 

Hey guys,

The battery was fine. The alternator was bad. Thanks for the help guys!