mntdewred

1998 Honda Civic EX 89,XXX miles

It may seem like an obvious fix, but then again, nothing is certain. Let's go back to when it all began.

It was November 27th, 4:35pm...irrelevant. Last month, I noticed the battery system light come on after driving for 25 minutes. Light was solid as a rock, car performed as it always has, no worries...Next day, no light. Light hasn't been back for quite some time.

Three weeks later...our good friend mr. battery light returns, but this time his stay is short lived or so we thought. The light likes to dim like an interior household light. When at idle, the battery light is a giant red pimple on my dash. Under slow acceleration, the pimple seems to heal, aka fade away. Oh, but when off the gas, it's like the night before school pictures, the pimple is back.

Today, one week later. Battery light fluctuates like the week prior, but now we're noticing lack of accessory lighting. Car starts strong, car drives strong, car doesn't illuminate strong. The interior lights (lights behind the dash) seem to be illuminating 30% of original full-power illuminocity. I checked the switch near the steering column to see if anyone has moved the dimmer, nope.

Went to Autozone to have them check out the alternator, see if it's going bad. Nope, a strong 13~14 amps coming from the baby, and the battery is brand spank-a-child new. Although, like any good patient, we need a second opinion. Trip two, going down to Advanced Auto Parts. Different machine, same results. Alternator pumping out 13~14 amps and battery is strong.

New twist, or maybe a psychadelic coincidence, you decide. Radar detector, brand: Cobra, age: 3 years. When driving, the Laser signal of the detector goes off and stays on....constantly, no matter where I turned. When at idle, Laser portion goes off, and our new 'Emergency Vehicle Approaching' signal comes on. Weird? Yea, I thought so. At a stop light, I decide to rev her a bit (remember, 'Emergency Vehicles are still Approaching'). Low and behold, E shuts off and L (Laser) comes back on. Drop to idle, L shuts off and E (Emergency) comes back on. What could be emitting a signal to trip the radar detector? I highly doubt the radar detector is defective, but then again, I could be wrong...

Who wants to be the mad scientist and pick apart my brain? You've got questions, I've got answers.

Enjoy!

93EH6

**** me thats wierd i have no idea

Ya@inlinePRO

battery terminals dirty???

mntdewred

Only thing I can think of is something is grounding out somewhere. After I installed my JimFab Traction bars, back in late July, the splash guard never went back on; only because it didn't fit. I don't know if that plays any kind of role in this one act play, but it's still in the air.

mntdewred

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kwik2nec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">battery terminals dirty??? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Will definitely check and clean regardless tomorrow when I have some light

Ya@inlinePRO

problems like this always end up to be dumb **** like that, hope it fixes it. if not check all the connections and make sure its not loose and check the grounds like you mentioned. good luck bro

The Internet Tough Guy

you mean 13-14 volts right?

i don't know anything about radar detectors, so i'm just gonna forget about that last paragraph.

well it's intermittent like most electricial problems. it may be a bad ground somewhere, but it sounds like an intermittently failing alternator. hence thats why it was cool when you checked it, but not when your driving. check belt tension, clean the battery terminals, and clean the terminals on the alternator; and if it still does it, try swapping the alternator with a known good one.

if that was a waste of time, it may be a bad ecu, but i'd say it's probably a short in a wire. they're might be some corrosion on one wire somewhere from your battery to alternator or alternator to anywhere else.

problems like this aren't very easy to diagnose.... just drive around until the battery light burns out

EKFerioHawaii

I like the part "until your battery light burns out"

drunknbass

check the battery wire to the alternator.. if its not supertight itll act normal at idle/low rpms but them itll act buggy sometimes.. try that and see..

mntdewred

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jwn7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you mean 13-14 volts right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes, volts. late, eyes dim

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well it's intermittent like most electricial problems. it may be a bad ground somewhere, but it sounds like an intermittently failing alternator. hence thats why it was cool when you checked it, but not when your driving. check belt tension, clean the battery terminals, and clean the terminals on the alternator; and if it still does it, try swapping the alternator with a known good one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Alternator is, at most, 6 months old, but i know that age sometimes doesn't matter. What raises my brow is that when I accelerate, the light fades away. It's kinda like the alternator isn't spinning fast enough for the car's approval. When driving, belt is spinning more rapidly and the light is no where to be seen.

TeamNextGenChris

i would try troubleshooting the Electric Load Detector.not sure if you're familiar with this,but it's located in the underhood fusebox.if you don't have the shop manual for your car,DL it here and try the procedure for the ELD:
http://www.icelord.net/honda/repair/
are you getting any trouble codes?off the top of my head i believe the ELD is a code 20,although it doesn't always throw a code when it is bad.
check that out and see what yuo get.
chris

vtekthis

try cleaning the green connector on the back of the alternator also. i.e. use compressed air, just another idea.

mntdewred

No CEL. Yes, I have a Helms Service Manual

The Internet Tough Guy

is it an oem alternator or one you picked up at some store? was it installed properly? it really sounds like the alternator is the culprit to me... checking belt tension would be the first thing i would do.

does the light fade when you rev it in neutral, or just when driving? if so, try putting a multimeter across the terminals while someone revs it up. don't trust those idiots at autozone or whatever... they just want to sell you stuff

carsaregood

did you take the alternator out of the car when you had it tested? i don't know how fast the testing equipment spins the alternator, but maybe they spin it faster than your motor does at idle.

if you have a volt/multimeter, you might try checking the output voltage on the alternator... i'm not sure which wires you want to tap for that... but you might be able to find out from a wiring diagram.

i've done that test with the car running on the battery terminals assuming that is the alternator's output... is this a wrong assumption? why or why not?

mntdewred

Not sure of the brand of alternator the parts store gave me. That was to long ago for my memory. And yes, it was installed properly.

Alternator stayed in the car when the tests were performed. Each part store wheeled out a dandy little machine.

TeamNextGenChris

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by carsaregood &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">.i've done that test with the car running on the battery terminals assuming that is the alternator's output... is this a wrong assumption? why or why not? </TD></TR></TABLE>
that won't necesarily give you a good indicator of the alternator's output-if the battery still has a decent charge,you may get an acceptable reading because the battery is taking up the slack from the alternator....the battery terminals are a convenient location to get to though.i'd start the car,then unhook the terminal from the battery,so the car is totally running off the alternator.this will give you a true reading of the voltage output,assuming there are no wiring problems between the terminals and alternator.

back to the original topic-as said above belt tension is an obvious(even though i didn't even think of it at first )thing to check.when i first did my swap a few years ago i ran through a really deep puddle with none of the splashguards/undertrays on my car.this splashed water all into the engine bay and into the alternator.right after that, the alternator momentarily put out a crazy ammount of voltage.at the time i had a voltage gauge in the car(i was checking the effects of an underdrive pulley on a full power option car[ex]),and it spiked to it's max reading of 24v!!my headlights and interior lights brightened to extraordinary levels(***** HID ),then my headlight bulbs blew-the surge lasted about 5 seconds.the 10 minute drive to Wal-Mart with no headlights was,needless to say,interesting....anyway,i put in new bulbs,and it did it again a couple more times over the course of a month..i ended up taking the alternator back to Advance as it was still under warranty..i was given the explanation that the voltage regulator had gone bad,allowing higher than normal voltage out of the unit.don't know how credible that explanantion is(we all know how knowledgable most auto part store guys are).i never did experience lower than normal volatges though,even with the underdrive pulley.i'm still not sure if the water played any role in the failure,or if it was just a freak occurance.
chris

Modified by TeamNextGenChris at 6:30 AM 1/7/2004


Modified by TeamNextGenChris at 6:31 AM 1/7/2004

EK MONEY

iTrader: (5)

that was like a nice story to put me to sleep. im gonna think about this one..

FULLTHROTTLE

13-14 volts are noce and all but you really need to load the alternator and see if it has proper amps. Anything below 50 amps on your civic nad it is beginning to die. If you have a dying alternator it could be emmitting very strange RF signals or fluctuating voltages giving you detector a hard time. Havent heard that one before but its not impossible.
There is also a possibility that you have corrosion on the alternator input at the fuse box.

Last but not least if the wiring under your intake maniflod wears through it could casue what youare experienceing followed by CELs and other problems down the road if it gets bad enough. Other than that stuff I cant help any mo.

mntdewred

Well, back when this all started, November or so, I drove through a nice sized puddle on the driver's side. Splashed up pretty well through considering I had no splash guard. Right after that, and I mean almost immediately, the battery light came on. This was during the day, so I didn't notice any power surge of lights or what not. Went back out to the car hours later, and the light was off.

ARIZONA

It's a ground connection or something is arching... is your fuse box cluttered and have **** spliced into it everywhere? Do you have indiglo gauge inserts? &lt;--- I have seen the epicenter modules on those reek havoc on electrical systems in Hondas.

mntdewred

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ARIZONA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's a ground connection or something is arching... is your fuse box cluttered and have **** spliced into it everywhere? Do you have indiglo gauge inserts? &lt;--- I have seen the epicenter modules on those reek havoc on electrical systems in Hondas.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, the only things spliced under the hood is for an alarm system and a tps wire that I spliced for my nitrous unit. No gauges, no indiglo, no crap like that.

FULLTHROTTLE

Go back to Vato Zone and have them do an amp draw on that alt. Preffereably when the light is on. that will give you a better idea of the alts health. Thats what I am guessing is wrong.

mntdewred

Plan on making a couple trips to various auto stores for testing. Hopefully the light is on then. But of course, the car never acts up when someone else is around.

The Internet Tough Guy

that thing should have a warranty on it still. just tell em its a piece and get a new one. but check all that other stuff first.