Had a battery problem a few years back, discussion in this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rl-a...roblem-771790/

New battery isn't holding a charge anymore - was epoxying the driver's side door handle back on last week, had the radio and overhead light on for 10-15 mins, car wouldn't crank, put the charger on it, battery was > 50% drained - I'm pretty sure the alternator bushings are shot, car is 12-13 yrs old now. Found brushes, cheap:

https://www.acurapartswarehouse.com/...tor-brush.html

Any DIY instructions for replacing them here? I searched, came up blank. Also, acurapartswarehouse shows "Holder Assy., Brush" on the same page - do I need to replace that too? Anyone done this, is it hard to do? No garage, will be done in my driveway.

 

Wait.. I'm not following your logic. If the new battery isn't holding a charge, why would you replace the alternator Why wouldn't you just replace the battery

 

^2nd that thought. How old is said battery?

 

Wasn't talking about replacing alternator, was asking about replacing the brushes - that's what goes bad. Anywho, nevermind on that - forgot I had a battery/alternator tester, checked both yesterday, both passed with flying colors. Battery was purchased on 4/13/15, so it's not even two years old - had 12.7 V with engine off, no bad cells. Question really is why did it run down so quickly with such a small load on it - or was the load actually as small as I think? With key in Ignition II position, NAV is powered up, radio is on, ventilation fan is on (no way to turn it off) at lowest setting, and overhead interior light is on, plus whatever else gets powered with ignition in that position - is that enough current draw to deplete that battery charge to 50% in 15 or 20 mins? Oh, just thought of another thing, this might be the key issue - do the daytime running lights come on with Ignition II position? If yes, that's the answer right there. Reason I had it in II instead of I position is that the "door open" chime never shuts up in position I, and I had to have the door open to work on the door handle repair.

 

Yes, 20 minutes is enough to run it down if you leave it on Ignition II depending on how low the charge was on the battery to start with. I've had that happen when I was taking apart door panels on my car and kept the car on Ignition II to keep the music on. My solution to it was to throw the trickle charger on when I do that.

 

Thnx - guess I'll need to throw the charger on it if I need to do that kind of work again. But hopefully this time the door handle repair will hold - used a high tensile strength Loctite single stage epoxy this time (Loctite 135423 Black 380 Toughened Max Instant Adhesive), same kind of epoxy used to hold driver heads to golf shafts - the torque and stress requirements for a golf club epoxy is ridiculously high - the clubs amateurs buy are identical to the ones the pros use, so they're all made with huge safety tolerances to prevent the heads from flying off, which could literally kill somebody if it happened.

 

You can definitely turn the fan off, and it will definitely drain your battery quick. The DRL only comes on in ignition II position if the parking brake is released.

 

The brushes can be replaced I will do a DIY on my youtube channel in the next month or so. My alternator has been flicking a bit and I think the brushes are on there way out.

I found the bearings also seperatly online.

When I do the Comptech install on the RL ill do the alternator rebuild also on a separate vid.

 

Looking forward to it - can you post the link in this thread after you film it? Realized you were right about being able to completely turn off the ventilation system after I picked up my car from the dealer after repairs last Friday - the techs had turned off the system to replace the passenger side airbag inflator, probably for the same reason I started this thread - to avoid draining the battery while the door was open. When I picked it up, the temp display on the dash was blank, and it took me about 30 secs to figure out how to reactivate the system, it's never been totally turned off before, at least not by me.

Also, a different topic but convenient discovery for me - have had the front grill out in the past to repair a slight crack and paint it black, OEM silver paint was chipped and peeling - when I pulled out the 11 yr old plastic clips that hold the top engine cover over the grill, nearly every one of them broke from age and brittleness. Searched online, found replacements for $2.70 - $3 each, pretty pricey given I needed about 6-8 of them. Went to my local Lowes, looked in the hardware dept., and in the nut/screw/bolt section they have a long row of pull out drawers holding specialized hardware, including an entire section for automotive parts - they sell nearly identical clips, 82 cents for a pair - they worked perfectly to replace the broken ones - get the 1/4" size, 5/16's won't fit in the holes. Was just there 2 weeks ago buying another bunch of them in preparation for removing the front bumper to fix a cracked fog light lens (driver's side, bumper HAS to come off), and I know darn near every one of those fasteners I'll need to remove to get to the fog light is going to shatter when I try to remove them.

Can't find a direct link to them at the Lowe's website, but they're similar to these:

https://www.lowes.com/search?searchT...an+nylon+rivet

 

So was the battery ever replaced?

 

Nope, battery and alternator were fine, just drained the battery from having the door open too long in ignition position II.

 

ah so there was no problem after all. That's good.