ck279

The idiot light in my car has been constantly flashing on and off for the last week or so. I recently put in a system consisting of two amplifiers and one 10" sub. I also replaced my last alternator which was providing almost no amps (bench tested). Everything worked fine for about 3 weekd until now. I have made no other changes in that timeframe. My lights do not dim at all even when playing my music very loud, with headlights and foglights and even winsheild wipers on. However the light is definitly voltage/current related as it goes on more consistantly and almost stays on completly when I have all of those components on. When only one or two are on it will sporatically blink. Any ideas what this could be and how to fix it???

DragII

by idiot light, do you mean check engine light?

ck279

No, not the check engine light. You know....you have your open door or low fuel light....like those. The little red light that has a battery on it keeps illuminating. It's driving me nuts!!

DragII

Sounds like your charging system is not working properly....it can be kind of hard to diagnose

ck279

Thanks. Yeah, my car's electrical system seems to dislike me. Some person on SuperHonda.org said something about the cars "voltage regulator". I did not know the Civic had one. I had thought that the amp's were constant but the voltage always fluctuated between maybe 11.5 and 14.5 depending on RPM. I would not be so thrown off if my light were dimming or anything else to indicate loss of power in the system. As of last night I see that even with my audio system off, but with my headlight and foglights on the battery idiot light will come on sometimes when I am at a light or stopped. As soon as I raise the RPM's or drive it goes away immediatly. Anyone with any ideas please help me out. In the meantime I'm off to diagnose.

92CivicSiR

If the light turns off when you raise the RPM then that means that the alternator is not meeting the cars power requirements. The alternator is bad, replace it....again.

If you put a constant high load on the alternator then it will cause it to burn up very quickly.

ck279

Nah, the lights don't even dim! Headlights, foglights, winshield wipers, and audio system on very loud.....with all that my headlight will not dim even a little. BUT, I get this light like I've been describing. If my lights were dimming I'd know to check the alternator, probably not putting out enough amps. That would be easy.


[Modified by ck279, 7:32 PM 9/29/2001]