Hello,
I've been struggling with my 91 integra rs for the last 2 weeks, visited multiple shops, even very reputable honda specialists but still nothing. The problem started after I made a 300 mile trip from Tucson to San Diego. The next day when starting the AC the batt lamp would go on for a couple of seconds and then would go off again. The AC was working fine. When I was coming back to tucson, at night, suddenly my lights started dimming and finally the car stopped. I towed it to the nearest shop (pepboys) they replaced the alternator, I could drive the car but turning on the AC would immediately drain the battery. They replaced the alternator again - still no luck. I got back home without AC and without headlights and took it to a honda/acura shop, they ran their tests and figured it's a faulty alternator. We took the alternator out and test-benched it and it proved to be fine, still I put an OEM, used, part in, just to make sure. No luck. Any ideas? It seems that both fans - AC and radiator drain the battery, also turning on the headlights seems to stop the battery from being charged.
Please help, I'm really desperate, I spent over 600$ on this shit already...

Thanks,
andrew

 

yeah, I forgot to say, that there's a small leak from the radiator and a small oil leak from the valve cover gasket.

 

Ok, I did some further checking on my own, and I found out that it's most probably not the fans causing the charging to stop - I ran the car for some time, the fans went on, the voltage dropped from 14.25 to 13.86 and after a 1-2s it went back to 14.15. Turning on the lights drops the voltage from 14.25 to 14.10, still ok I think.
Further - turning on the AC with the fans unplugged gives a voltage drop and the batt lamp goes on.

 

do you have any kind of like aftermarket stereo equipment in the vehicle? did you double check the wires going from the alt to the wiring harness??? Possibly bad perhaps? Start at the alt and work your way up. It sucks you spent 600 on it already and haven't fixed the problem. Next time tell them that they haven't done their job and you won't pay them untill they fix it. 600 is more than enought to fix a problem.

 

The wires to the alternator were checked, at least that's what my shop claims. I'm thinking it might be the ac compressor clutch - I think the wires coming into it have bad insulation and may be causing a short. No other electrical device in the car causes any problem right now.
Is there any way I can change the wiring to the compressor without taking it out of the car (evacuating the AC system) ?
What's the normal amperage that should go into the compressor? I could connect an ammeter in series and check the readings, but I currently have a simple multimeter only capable of measuring up to 10 amps, and I'm afraid it might not be enough and I'd just blow the fuse in it.
I measured the resistance of the compressor's coil and it's 4.2 ohm, while it should be 3.6 +/- 0.2...

any ideas?