crxaddikt

car is 90 crx si, no weird mods or anything, just stock

my car stalled in the middle of the road as i was turning left, and it did'nt start up again.

one thing i did have recently within last couple days was a battery light on the dash that sometimes flickers and sometimes is solid but my battery is brand new and alternator tested good plus the alt belt was tightened good.

i ended up getting someone to give me a jumpstart and it started right up and drove fine but then my headlights, signal lights, gauge lights, clock & turn signal controls inside all did'nt work !!!, it was already dark by then and i was close to home and i just drove carefully and tried to avoid stopping cause was scared it would stall again so i coasted through parking lots cutting through corners and made it home.

the first thing i thought was that i was pretty positive that my battery just ended up being drained since i just got back from having mechanic i know work on my car figuring out why my radiator fan did'nt work, and while in the process i remember he had my door open with the key turned to the "on" position for a while, with it beeping and the dome light on, so i was sure it probably drained the battery from leaving it open so long possibly, but that would'nt explain the other thing where after got it jumpstarted that my headlights and everything else did'nt work any more ???, that seems almost like a seperate thing than a battery being drained ? or maybe not ? but the battery was'nt drained too much otherwise it would'nt of been able to get jumpstarted, so seems like it would of had enough power to use the headlights, gauges, signals etc . . ., so could be something else to do wth that ?

to me i think its something to do with fuses or something, but it kind of reminds me a lot of the symptoms of an alternator going out, cause i remember when my alt went bad my headlights dimmed, gauges dimmed and clock and had battery light and then stalled but i don't think it started though like mine just did ?


anybody have any ideas on what i can check or what you think it may be ???

CRX Si69

check the main relay and then check the starter itself... recently my mom's car died on her and she had no power to anything at all, wouldn't turn over or anything... new, charged batter and still a no go... turned out it was the starter.

crxaddikt

actually my starter was rebuilt 2 months ago cause had start problem back then so should be good now, and the main relay is good cause mechanic checked it recently.

as far as not starting i have feeling battery was drained from having door open with ignition on for long time when guy worked on my car, and prob just need to charge battery back up and might be ok after that.


the main thing i am wondering and obsessing about is to find out what is causing the sudden weird electrical things to act the way they are? like the headlights and all other lights on outside of car were'nt working along with the gauge lights in the dash, clock and signal controls ???,

but later i went out and realised a couple other things to mention, i had the drivers door open and i tried to turn the headlights on and when i turned the switch for the headlights instead it turned the dome light off and headlights did'nt turn on at all ? and also if i press the brake pedal while driver door open, it turns the dome light off ??

and when i put the key in and turn it to the "on" position while the driver door is open, instead of one beep sound beeping, i hear two different beep sounds going at once alternating but similar in tone ?? and it never did that before ?

i have heard that the integrated control unit which is behind the underdash fuse panel is what controls stuff such as those alert beep sounds and dome light or latch that activates domelight and turn signals, hazards and other things such as wiper speeds etc . . ., so i was thinking that could of gone bad ? maybe got wet or shorted out or wires funny ???

or what if my underdash fuse panel is bad ?? making things act haywire like that ?


can anybody give me any thoughts what they think could cause this type of weird stuff to happen where headlight switch turns dome light off etc . . . ???,

any help would be cool,

crvtectim

You'll get more help once you start posting the cliff notes to your novels.

meda215

Battery only starts the car so if ur battery started the car then there isnt a problem with battery. Now it could be an alt prob if alt not werking car wont run (stall or cut off) causing the battery to be drain and result in ur no start after stall if the battery is to dead then it could go bad. Ur lights issue may be that the alt is giving so little that running the motor is taking all the power or ur mechanic left sumthing loose (wiring) n shorted the fuse out


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sh1ntaox

this sounds like the alternator is not charging properly. even if it tests ok it may just be not good enough. i have the exact problem right now.waiting for one from ebay to arrive. for the d16a6 i only had good results with an oem part. one of the replacement type alternators brand new just wasted time and would not charge properly. wonky lights and jumping gauges. make sure the grounds are solid and clean too. is the alternator a oem piece?

mathewbyrne

iTrader: (3)

I would take the under dash fuse pannel out and. Check for any shorts. I had that problem with m eg a few months ago where everything wasn't right and lights wouldn't come on and was making two beeping noises. Come to find out my windshield was cracked so bad that it was leaking water right down to the fuse pannel. Shorting a bunch of crap out. I was stumped for quite awhile till it started raining lol. Those fuse pannels are tricky to take apart too so be prepared lol cause u have to take it completely apart to see if it is shorting out.

crxaddikt

i did'nt have time to fix the car cause i was going out of town and i was gone 2 weeks but i'm back home now and i'm ready to try to get my car working again,

to sum up everything, before this problem i just drove from dallas to austin and and back and my car drove perfect, and only thing weird i noticed was on the way back when i just was coming into dallas i saw battery light on dash and flickered sort of and other times looked solid, but car drove fine.

two days later i was idling and my car overheated and leaked coolant, and i noticed my radiator fan was'nt coming on at all, so got mechanic to look at it, he used a test light and was also trying putting different amp fuses and also tested relays, and he took the two relays off and said they were bad (i think the rad. fan & a/c relays), he said i needed to buy relay and fuse for the fan and should work fine again.

car started fine and drove fine back home except stalled couple mins away from my house, then got jump-started and after starting to drive home i noticed the headlights, signal lights & dash lights all did'nt work ? next day did'nt start and i tested battery and said 11.3v, using voltmeter, also i read instructions how to test alternator using voltmeter but said same thing, 11.3v, so not sure if i did that part right? or if car has to be running to test the alternator?

all the fuses are fine in underdash and underhood, not broken or anything,

i have two circuit-breaker type fuses in the underdash fusebox, they are there cause i had problem where blew fuse for hazards or signal lights so it protects from blowing and resets itself and been working for 5 yrs or so, and other one is for something similar, not sure if could be something related to those or not ?


i'm having a mechanic look at it today, and my battery has been charging on a charger all night long.


if anybody can think of stuff to check or what it can be then i would appreciate the help,
then i can start narrowing it down and also be able to direct the mechanic in the right direction on what to look at. thanks

Former User

Your Cliffs notes are even too long.

Have you checked fuses 1 and 33? To learn how properly to test fuses, click the Fuse Testing link in my signature.

If your charging system light in the cluster continues to flicker or stay on, then you do have an alternator or alternator circuit problem.

crxaddikt

RonJ@HT, i realise i tend to write too much but i don't mean to, its probly cause i try to cover all the details so people have info to help me with but i need to try making them more simple.

i checked no. 1 and 33 fuses visually looking at them to see if the fuses were broken inside, and all of them are intact, i'll read the link you had about how to test fuses cause i only know how to just do visual check.

two of the fuses are "circuit-breaker" fuses, which protect themselves from blowing, resetting automatically if it blows or something, but i don't know how to check them if they are bad? or if they have failed? is there some way to check those ?

i also wonder about the integrated control unit (I.C.U.), which is behind the underdash fusebox, i read that it controls intermittent wipers, hazard or turn signals and warning beeping sounds for the door ajar and stuff like that, cause i've had strange problems with the door ajar beep randomly going off but thought it was the door latch not closed all the way, plus my intermittent wiper speed not worked for a long time, maybe the (I.C.U.) is bad? or shorted out?
or got wet? and maybe thats why my signal lights don't work and stuff? would that be a possibility? or not?

another thing, theres two frayed, exposed wires from when thieves stole my radio, and one time i accidentally touched those two wire ends together and it made a little smoke and afterward realised it blew the fuse in the underdash fusebox for the dome light & clock, but it was fine after putting new fuse for it. but can that have done something?

Former User

Voltage test those fuses as described at my Fuse link.

crxaddikt

i probably overthought this one, cause this whole time i was assuming it was something worse like a strange electrical problem, but it always ends up being something more simple in the end.

after making sure all fuses were good, and putting a new positive battery cable and making sure connections were good, and battery charged up, i drove it carefully around my neighborhood close by to see how it acted, and if it stalled i would park it along the curb and at least it would be on a street close by where i could walk home.

it started right away & idles good and still shows solid battery light, i turned headlights on and it did'nt act funny, i drove around block couple times and it was driving normal and did'nt feel like it was going to stall or anything, and since it seemed ok, i decided to drive to the house of a mechanic i know, about 15 mins away on mostly highway, i made it without a problem, he looked at it and he fused a couple wires together better by the harness coming out of firewall and checked things with multimeter and testlight, and he said its the ALTERNATOR.

he said check if i had a lifetime warranty on the remanufactured autozone one i had or not? and get replaced or get new one or get rebuilt.

and he did'nt think mattered if its OEM or not, as long as it works should be good enough, and said i can even have them bench test whatever new alt. they give me before even putting in my car, just to make sure its all good beforehand, cause i have heard some are still bad even if they say they are "rebuilt" or "new", so i would feel better doing that.

so hopefully that will solve my problem.

only reason i did'nt think it was the alt. was how my lights did'nt work at all instead of just dimming like they usually do on symptoms of alt. going bad, but i was wrong.