crvinmalawi

Hey crew, I'm back with another problem after you all helped out on the horn front. There are many small pieces and hopefully all the clues lead people to ideas:

The horn wasn't working and we had to replace some seals in the exhaust system so we took it to the mechanic my work uses. They seemingly fixed both problems but at the end of it the check engine and exhaust indicator lights were on. I told them to fix it and it turns out that that was a bad idea b/c they really didn't know what they were doing. Long story short, three hours later the check engine light was off, but the exhaust light was still on.

Fast forward one week and I'm driving home when all of a sudden my tachometer starts bouncing (with no actual change in rpms) and the speedometer starts bouncing (but with no change in speed) and the lights start to dim. Before making it home the car dies and we push it into a friend's compound.

Next day: I notice the battery looks pretty deteriorated so we use a wall charger to get the batter charged up enough to drive home, but the car died just before arriving home (about three miles). I bought and installed a new battery and everything worked just fine with a few changes: the exhaust indicator was now off, the check engine light was now on, the tachometer seemed to function fine, but the speedometer was 90% dead and 10% of the time bouncing.

I took it to another shop and they did a quick diagnostic (keep in mind here in Malawi, Africa the diagnostic isn't as thorough as at home) and they thought the vehicle speed sensor would fix the speedometer but that things would otherwise be fine. Unfortunately, after driving a total of about 20 miles on a brand new battery, the car died at work and wouldn't start. I got a jump and drove directly home where the car is now parked.

Review: Obviously something beyond the VSS is broken b/c the battery shouldn't be dead after such a short amount of daylight driving without headlights. Maybe the battery is a dud. Maybe there is a parasitic drain. Reading on other threads I noticed a bad alternator was often blamed for the jumpy tach and speedometer. That fits with the dying battery but does it make sense that I could drive after a jump with a bad alternator? I'm afraid the electrician working on the horn did some damage, but maybe it just happened to coincide.

I know it's a complicated situation and I hope you all have some ideas. Thanks!

dogbiscuit

my main guesstimate is the alternator is dead and you're running the whole engine off the battery?

anybody else

HondaJack

Yes

What does battery voltage measure while the V is running?

crvinmalawi

Re HondaJack: I don't have a multimeter here at home, but am going to get a jump and take it down to the shop. What should it read? 12-13v?

crvinmalawi

At the shop now: While the car is off the battery reads 12.1. While on it reads just over 13.

Also, I kept looking through archived posts and found the fuse number that controls the speedometer (I don't have the users manual) and sure enough it was blown. Changed it and the speedo is working. So, one thing down. But, when I put in the new fuse the check engine light went OFF and the exhaust light came back ON. Whacky stuff.

2000crv sport

my deck has a volt meter i don't know how accurate it is. but with no other electronics running it reads 13.2-13.4.... when i crank my system at idle it can go below 11....but it all depends what you have hooked up if you have your ac fan on or off lights on or off, so i think 12.1 when off, and 13 at idleis bad so that doesn't seem too be the problem