em2-matt

While driving down the road the other day my Altinator falls out of position and loses charge. This caused a cluster of problems. First the car went into limp mode and is still stuck in limp mode. As the problem occurred the CEL and battery light both came on. I reset the battery and try starting the car again. The battery light went away but the key immoblizer light stayed constantly flashing. The RPM gauge and thermostat gauge both stopes working at this time and the car developed an erratic idling problem. The car is running super rich due to being in limp mode and is cooking the catalytic converter basically. The car also will not connect to a computer to check the CEL. It only shows unresponsive. There could be a possibility that my PCM could be bad now but no need another ECM to test and rule out that mine isn't bad. Also the k wire is showing 1.75 volts when it should be dead. And the power is feeding into my brake light harness. I'm not sure yet If it's a short but I am almost certain. I took the car to Honda to reevaluate everything and they came up with everything I did. Now me and the machanic there are both slightly dumbfounded at the fact we ant find the exact source of all this. Please anyone who has had or heard of this problem before give all suggestions before we are left to just trial and error of buying and replacing parts.
Thanks in advance to everyone's inputs and help

toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

So your alternator fell out of its holding bracket? Did you check to see if damaged any of the wire harness when it did that? I would suspect that it did. And, if one or more of the engine's wire harness were frayed and the charge harness wiring was frayed, I could definitely see why you're getting voltage on wires that shouldn't have any.

em2-matt

It didn't fall completely off, the bolt backed its way out and it slipped out of positin and fell down and slightly toward the header. The. Wiring looked fine around the Altinator and it didn't fall in a way to put tension on those wires.

Freshes1

Yes I did right after I swapped my motor. The whole car is in limp mode like you said. A new ECU will fix the whole problem (been driving mine 30k since no problems) just make sure you go to a good honda place. first place was beyond dumb and told me I made up the term limp mode and fried my ecu again ha so had to do it all over again. and make sure its the correct ecu. good luck, def sucks

em2-matt

Thanks. they told me it was a problem with my fuse box under the dash and ensured me that was the problem, but it did absolutely nothing and I kinda want to fight that against them but I feel like it will get me no where. They are now saying they can get me a refurbished PCM for $300 but I think I still would have to pay for a reflash and idk how much that's gonna cost and they have already ripped me off $600 on that fuse box I didn't need

Freshes1

Wow man I'm sorrry to hear that. They got me for about 500 when it was supposed to only be 120 for the reflash. I got an ECU from the local junk yard I go to for $50 but that was the one they blew. they got me another one for $150.. bunch of ******. thats why I do all my own work, If only I could reflash myself then i would never need them ha

em2-matt

I mostly do all my own work too but I don't know much when it comes to electrical problems. I think I'm goin to just have to pay a crap ton and just let them do what ever. Hopefully once they are able to get the car to a point where the are able to read the code it's throwing then maybe I can take over the work from there. Assuming it doesn't show any p1000 codes.

cavic

yea as said before, your ecu got fried due to the alternator bracket bolt coming loose, same thing happen to me right after i did my AT to MT swap, and i thought it was related to the trans swap, 50 bucks for the ecu at the junk yard and a reflash from honda and your good to go, its worse than limp mode, its like the ultimate limp mode

edit: i have a spare ecu is your car is MT, pm me if anything

2001dxtn

I had the exact same problem. Alternator bracket was broken, car suddenly went into limp mode and key indicator light was on...

Got an ECU from ebay (I had the dealer install it, but honestly it didn't look that hard) and had the bracket fixed, and the car was fine.

Funny part was that the dealer swore up and down to me that there was NO WAY that the alternator and ECU issues were related. I think that they are dead wrong, but didn't really fight them on it!