so simple

95 gsr with greddy turbo. less than 10k miles on turbo, timing belt/waterpump etc.
alternator has at least 5 years/50k miles on it.


i let my friend borrow my car for a while and once in a while the car would just shut off when hes driving. hed be driving and all of a sudden the engine would just lose power and the battery light would come on. but it would usually start right back up. this has maybe happened to me once but i cant really remember. but its happened to him a couple times sinces hes been driving the car.

past couple days it seems to have been getting worse, he said he was on the freeway and the radio started to cut on/off, then the battery light comes on and engine loses power. he turns the key and it start up while still in motion. maybe 5 minutes later it cuts off again and he had to pop the clutch and keep the revs up to keep the engine from dying. i pick up the car later, start it and it stays on for a couple seconds then shuts off. start it up again and everythings fine. drive it to work next day and everything is fine.i had a separate problem i noticed of smoke from valve cover breather (found low compression in one cylinder/bad rings?) but thats a separate problem.

what would cause the car to just shut off like that? could it be a faulty alternator? battery holds a charge, ive banged on the igniition switch and jiggled the key to see if it was the ignition switch. tapped on the main relay while cars running but it seems fine. main relay did have a slightly burnt smell though? very faint smell though.

the car does have aem pulleys, which i know makes the electrical system weaker. at idle i think the car is maybe slightly under 12v, and with the rpms up, it goes 12-14v.

but the car has only shut off on him mostly, and not all the time. do alternators go in and out like that randomly when they start to die out?

i considered fuel pump and maybe distributor/ignitor, but when those go out i wouldnt be able to start the car up again right? im leaning towards alternator because of the battery light, and the turning off of radio etc and car just suddenly losing power. oh yeah also when the car shuts off its been at night, so he would have the headlights on, when the car shuts off the headlights still stay on, so battery should be good?

vladd

i've never had an alternator die on me but in your situation (batery light turning on) that'd be my first guess. don't some stores like autozone test them for free?

krucial7integra

I would agree, normally if your battery light comes on then its your alternator. Have that checked out first to see if that's the problem and then you can narrow it down from there.

smxcan

I had the exact same problem with our stock 98 Accord EX (AT) back in 2002. Intermittently the car would shut off while driving! I had to turn the key in the ignition to restart the engine while the car was moving.

To fix the problem I replaced the ignition switch, the part where the key goes into and turns. There must have been a loose connection in the ignition switch.

With the new switch the car has never shut off on its own while driving. The only down side is, I had to get a new set of keys to start the engine, while the original keys still opened the doors/trunk.

Here’s one site I just found on Google that talks more about this issue:
http://www.visualimpressions.ca/switch/
http://techauto.awardspace.com/ignitionswitch.html

jdm91ls

important question would be does the battery light come on before or after the engine dies?????????