hybrid1990crx

I have a 97 civic dx hatch, the car is BONE stock besides for fog lights and a lighted vacuum gauge(both of which I disconnected to see if they were causing the problem.) I put a new alternator on it about a month and a half ago after the orignal locked up. All seemed well. I noticed a flickering light a few days later but the belt was a tad loose. Well I tightened the belt and it still flickers. I stopped at autozone and had the battery tested and they said it was bad, so I got a new one. Light is still flickering GRRR. So back to Autozone I go with the alternator I replaced a few weeks ago, it tests fine. WTF. The dude is nice enough to give me another one anyway. Get home and put it on the car and the LIGHT IS STILL ON. Needless to say I'm getting pretty angry at the car. I tested for resistance between the battery and the alternator and got .5 ohms, no noticeable corrosion either. I checked and cleaned all my grounds, everything was fine. I did a draw test with my test light and it tested fine. I'm getting 14.5v at idle with no accessories on and 13.4 with my a/c and headlights on at both the battery terminals and at the alternator.

The light is not fully on, maybe 1/4 of the way lit up. When the a/c is off the light flickers a bit at idle, and with the a/c is on it seems ok at idle but comes on while blipping the throttle.

All the belts are new and I've triple checked to make sure they are tight. A friend of mine said there is a bulletin for the green plug on the alternator rubbing on a bracket and grounding out but I didn't find any rubbing, or even anything for it to run on lol. And the wiring for said plug appeared ok as far as I could see.

If anyone could shed some light onto this for me it would be greatly appreciated since its my daily and I don't want to get stranded going to work early in the morning.

hybrid1990crx

Could this possibly be a ELD issue?

Linked

what is the condition of the belt?

when you tensioned it by adjusting the alternator, did you have to put it at the max tension?

hybrid1990crx

The belt is only a few weeks old so I would assume its in good shape. And the belt is TIGHT, I used a pry bar to be sure it had good tension on it. So unless the belt is slipping and not making any noise I don't think its the issue.

Tonight I drove the car to get dinner and the light was off (for the most part) while driving with the a/c off, but as soon as I turned the a/c on the light would come on. And I even noticed when turning onto my street the alternator light was blinking with the turn signal.

Also, I don't know if this has anything to do with my current issue, but I got 4mpg less than normal with this past tank of gas.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow I can find a few fuse boxes at the junkyard and swap out the ELD or maybe even the entire fuse box.

Sigh.

Former User

I had this problem once and discovered that I had not tightened the upper mount bracket bolt. Make sure all of the bolts are tight.

hybrid1990crx

Wow that would be great if it was that simple. I did remove that bracket the first time I did the alternator, but not today when I replaced it again. I didn't notice it was loose but I will surely check that out before work tomorrow morning!

If not I will be getting a fuse box/eld tomorrow after work.

Former User

After you ensure that the alternator is firmly secured, try these tests:

hybrid1990crx

I checked the alternator bracket and it is tight.

I hooked a multimeter to the battery to monitor voltage while driving. With the headlights and a/c on the light was flicker, I was getting 14.5 volts while driving. Shouldn't that be plenty of voltage???

However I noticed sometimes when returning to idle at a stop light it would drop voltage as low as 12.7 volts but NOT turn the light on, but when I would give it gas the light would flicker and votage would bump back up to the 14.5 area.

The damn light almost seems to be working backwards.

That article you posted said to test the eld by confirming with the mil, how do I do that test?

hybrid1990crx

Well the junkyard ELD didn't help. Im pretty stumped at this point.

The alternator seems to be charging fine, I'm starting to think the idiot light is picking up current from something else.

hybrid1990crx

Well I checked the wiring under the intake for fraying like it says in the Fuse 15 TSB, all was fine.

Can anyone tell me what feeds power/signal to the alternator light? ECU?

Former User

Voltage for the cluster charge light comes from 7.5A fuse 15.

hybrid1990crx

I checked that fuse yesterday and it was good, test light lit up bright on both sides of the fuse with the key on engine off.. What tells the light to turn on is a better question I guess.

Former User

If fuse 15 were blown, the charge light would never turn on. That's clearly not your problem. The charge light turns on if the output voltage from the alternator is lower than that of the battery (generally caused by a bad alternator).

hybrid1990crx

Yes I understand that's not my problem.

But if that's the parameters for turning the charge light on, then why do I have the charge light on while cruising at 60mph in 5th with the a/c and headlights on, while the battery has 14.4v on it. Another thing that seems to trigger the light on is giving the car gas and letting it fall back down to idle, also while battery voltage is staying above 13v, unless my meter isn't reacting fast enough to see the voltage drop. Something is telling it to come on, but what?

Former User

When the charge light turns on, it plain and simply means that voltage on one side of the bulb is substantially higher than on the other side. A dim charge light means a smaller voltage difference on one side.

I assume you decided not to do the tests detailed in the diagram in post #7.

hybrid1990crx

I did do the tests outlined in post #7.

My test results were less than 1v between #2 pin on the alt connector and the possitive battery terminal. And I do have continuity between #2 alt connector and #19 on ecu A connector. Which then poits to testing the alt components.

Still stumped.

hybrid1990crx

I also want to note that I found constant battery power on the blk/wht side of the charge light. I also found continuity between the blk/wht wire and the battery ground....weird. And when I would go across the two I would get 3v, which will go away when raising the RPM. And I have no voltage at all on the wht/blu side.....but when I jump this to ground from the alternator connector I get a full on charge light.

So at this point I'm thinking I may have a short to ground on the wht/blu wire, which I don't think is right because its only a dim light. OR these Auto Zone Reman Alternators are junk and causing me a ton of heartache for nothing.

Former User

Former User

hybrid1990crx

Engine running or off? What was the voltage reading and to what ground? Anything unplugged?

Engine off I got battery Voltage. Engine on I got charging voltage (14v). I found this measuring from were the bulb goes into the cluster with the bulb unplugged. Using the ground for the battery.

Engine running or off?

Engine off, I forget if I looked for ground with engine on.

Blk/Wht to Wht/Bu? Anything unplugged? Which side had the higher voltage?

Yes across blk/wht and wht/blue. I measured this across the socket for the bulb with the bulb out. I only get voltage on the blk/wht side which is battery voltage.

Under what conditions? To what ground?

Under all conditions I believe, I did it yesterday so I don't remember exactly. And to the ground for the battery.

hybrid1990crx

Just pulled the car in and did these quick and again it leads me to "Test and repair the alternator components".

Former User

Former User

Makes you suspect a bad alternator, a loose alternator belt, or a loosely secured alternator.

hybrid1990crx

I just pulled the cluster again to retest some things I did yesterday.

I found that with the bulb in I do have voltage on both sides(obviously because its completing the circuit).

The blk/wht side is the side with the constant voltage. When the light comes on dimly I drop about 1-2 volts with the engine running. If I turn the key on engine off I get a full charge light (like I should) and I drop all the way down to .8v on the wht/blu side, which I expected.

I tested voltage on the wht/blu wire at both the alternator connector and at the back of the cluster and its the same. I also broke the circuit by disconnecting the plug from the cluster and found no continuity with ground on the wht/blu wire, which shows me that I don't have a short to ground on the wire.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I also find that with the light on while driving, it's RPM specific. For example, driving 5th gear in town at 35mph will result in a light, but if I speed up or downshift the light goes out. Or if I return to idle the light will usually go out.

So with all that being said, all signs seem to point to a faulty alternator. But two in a row and a month and a half apart from each other?

95EG2

it is possible i work with shitty parts all day