Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

i had a problem very similar to this. I even bought a brand new battery and it still happened. so one night i turned my headlights on and started the car, a few minutes of driving the radio would turn off and my cluster lights would dim. i replaced the battery, alternator, but still same problem. i ended up figuring the connection from the alternator to the fuse box was old and nasty so just cleaned that up and it started up with no problem! so check all your grounds and connections and all

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

Does the dash charge light ever stay on with the engine running?

If both top test tabs of installed fuse 15 have battery voltage and the alternator belt is tight and not slipping and no CEL codes are thrown, then replace the alternator.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

like i said alternatorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr yeeeeeeeeeeee, or do what i did replace everything, floor harness, dash harness, engine harness, trunk harness,headlight harness and then wire tuck lol

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

what is dash charge light?
alt belt is tight and i do have a CEL P0133 which was checked by autozone and said it was my o2 sensor. i have a dc header so i did the diy cel eliminator(antifouler) yesterday to trick it...
ill check the wire from the alt to the fuse box and if thats nice and clean then i guess last choice is to change the alt...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

prolly a bad diode somewhere or the alternator is just going out period

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

Battery symbol in cluster. When you turn the key from OFF to ON(II), it should light up. When you start the engine, it should turn off.

If you don't have an ELD CEL code, then replace the alternator.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

I don't have eld light so it must be alt then...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

i tried the old mans trick by taking out the positive on the battery while the cars on to test the alternator and the car ran perfectly fine.. what else could it be?

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

That's a risky test that should be avoided. In addition, you already know the problem is intermittent, so take the result with a grain of salt.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

So replace it then? I'll try one out

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

When you post. Consolidate all your thoughts and place them in an organized fashion in one single post so its not as painful to read.

Also, listen to RonJ@HT. He knows what he's talking about. He's helped me on more than one occasion.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

Oh trust me I know hes very knowledgeable and has helped me in the past before...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

update... its 1:30am and i was driving home from my girls house... hids on and radio was on only... hids flickered a little bit at times and radio turned off only once... drove for about 20 mins and pulled up to my house... decided to turn on the ac to see if it dimmed the lights and i was right... car almost turned off... it literally idled like at 200rpms and came back up to 900rpms... when i turned the AC knob to blow max, i heard a click coming from the ecu side of the car... i kept turning back and fourth and i heard that same click coming from that part of the car... when i turned on the defroster everything dimmed even more... will try replacing the alternator some time this week... this car is killing me...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

Changed the alternator this morning and still...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

Get the helms manual and go attempt to fix/clean/repair every ground you have on that car... Your alternator shouldn't be burning out unless you have a weak/bad ground for various devices in your car.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

i will try this... i know its a ground but everyone ive checked seems tight...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

i think ur engine harness might be shorted, i changed mines out after it threw lights on my cluster, but not a full guarantee i spends almost near 2k just fixing all my electrical issues to near new

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

damn and theres no way of testing it?

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

engine harness testing nope, i took mines apart it took so long to test so i was like fck it imma just get another one lol

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

but b16a harness are hard as hell to find nowadays... back in 2003 it was cake... now this shits rare!

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

shits must suck for you , doesnt obd2-b b18c1 or c5 harness works properly the same way

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

nope its different...

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

u sure we use it for swaps all the time

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

It's not just about being "tight".. You actually should take out all the grounds, blow out the holes for their bolts w/air, scrub the bolts, the eyelets (copper thing that you put bolt through that is attached to ground cable) till they're clean. I mean my car wasn't malfunctioning or anything and the grounds looked fine but when I took a wire brush to all of them, the bolts and all that, the ohms from the ground point to the battery dropped to zero ohms (ohms meter only has two decimal places) and now my car idle is that much more stable, at least for a car with a cracked exhaust manifold. Grounds are especially important for sensitive electronics like o2 sensors which actually generate their own faint electrical signal or for high current devices like an alternator. A lot of bolts will have the washer attached and can't be removed, however they're not welded so dirt and corrosion gets in between so you'll want to scrub with a wire brush between the bolt and the washer, just scrub so that the whole bolt is "clean" and fresh for good continuity.

These are old cars now, things will corrode and get dirty so it's our job to do these repairs and to do anything but is pure neglect. If you could get an ohm meter (multimeter with ohms function is the same) and measure the ohms from the ground point to battery, it can be a good indication of how well the ground is working. You can't just visually inspect grounds, you've got to actually check em.

Re: 00 Civic Si - alternator not charging battery
 

on egs yea but not on em1's...