jeffcat

I am having a problem with a D15B2 89 Civic LX Sedan dying on me. The problem is that my brother stated that he would drive the car, and that it would occasionally and abruptly just die electrically while driving. I tested the voltage of the battery while it was running initially, and under load with the lights on and so forth, it was at 11.7 volts....so I surmised that it was a poor alternator. Anyways, I replaced the alternator with a new one, and I started the car up. It was initially 15 volts at the battery with the engine on, but it steadily and gradually went lower and lower as the engine idled for 10 minutes. I had it lower to the 12 volt range, then the car abruptly completely died electrically. It wouldn't do ANYTHING, as if the battery wasn't even connected. So I am going to guess the alternator is not the issue, but is there is common wiring issue that is preventing the alternator from charging the battery? Like, many things on this car, I'm stumped by what it's doing. It's symptoms make me believe that it is likely an electrical wiring issue, but the new alternator did not fix the issue.

got_no_sol

Check the ignition switch next time it does jiggle the **** out of the key and see if it will start or do the reverse while running jiggle and try to make it **** off , I had a near identical issue on my homies f20b and it was a combination of shitty dizzy igniter and bad ignition killing the car after about 10-15 mins of driving

jeffcat

the ignitor, ECU, fuel pump relay, and alternator are all new. A new battery was placed in the car today and it runs....for now, although the old one tested "bad" at O'Reilley's supposedly. However, if there is a problem with the alternator or the wiring, it will most likely drain the new battery as well, and really just temporarily band aids the issue as the car should run with the battery disconnected as the alternator takes over once the car is started. The car started, but would run 5 minutes, then die. The car ran fine for a few months before this. So my question is if the alternator and battery are not bad then:

1: something has to be putting a monumental load on the alternator for it to be so overcome that it can't recharge the battery.
2: a connection in the wiring somewhere is screwed up and a fuse or relay that I'm not aware of is not allowing for an adequate amount of energy to recharge the battery.

bbarbulo

i never trust a store to check my battery. of course they'll say it's bad, it's a $100 sale for them - you're walking in thinking you have a battery problem AND they sell batteries. they'd be stupid to send you out the door with your old battery in-hand.

1. no
2. no

why are you stuck on it 'not charging the battery'? nothing about that behavior says the battery isn't charging. you said ALL electrical goes out. Not just the engine, but I assume all lights are dead (dome light, hazard lights, etc...) - stuff that should normally stay on, even with the key out of the ignition. And hazards or dome light could run on the power of a bunch of AA batteries strung together, so minimal power is needed.

My alternator died one time, I drove around another 40 minutes to get home on battery power alone. So if it wasn't charging, a fully charged battery should get you at least that amount of time if you keep your headlights, radio, HVAC, wipers, defrost... off.

So start from the beginning... car just died, all electrical went out. What do you do to start it again? Boost the battery? Or wait 10 minutes? Or ???

Post a picture of your battery terminals. I'm talking close-up...

tamboo

ALTERNATOR BRUSH HOLDER Honda Mazda Scion Mini Chevrolet Geo Pontiac DENSO IR/IF | eBay

old alt might have just needed a new brush unit (look up proper part #).
new one could be junk. buy denso or other made in japan quality stuff.
a good battery tender is worth it.

yanirita911

this is great. really needed this. cant wait to get this alternator so i can get my 88 civic back on track.

Tyson

no, dont assume this.

people get bad remans from the store all the time.

get another alt.

yanirita911

WELL EXCUSE ME GRUMPY. SMH. THOUGHT THIS WAS A FRIENDLY PLACE. SMH

Tyson

lol.

wrong thread.

toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

There was nothing hostile about his response. If that is going to bother you, you may need to spend some time reflecting on how you interpret text that has no emotion tied to it.

jeffcat

As a delayed follow up to this post, I replaced the main relay, and it was not the issue, despite main relay issues having similar sx. After a long and tenuous process, the problem was actually a faulty ECU. I replaced it with a a used ECU for $20 off of ebay, and the car started right up, kept running, and has been running like a top since that time.

Tyson

thanks for letting us know the solution. it helps others greatly when searching for similar problems.

can you open the ecu and see if theres anything particularly wrong? burnt transistor, or blown capacitor?