. M i c h a e l

Okay, simply driving around last week and I'm noticing everything in my car is dim. The battery light is faintly on and the e-brake light is on, with the e-brake down.

Pull the e-brake up and the battery light goes away and the e-brake light shines as it should.

Turn signals dont work, headlights and tail lights are super dim. Radio wont even turn on.

At first the speedometer wasnt working, now both speedo and tach arent working. Temperature stays lower than it should.

When I turned the A/C on, the RPMs would start jumping around, and fall right back to zero when i turned it off.

At first I thought it might've been wiring somewhere. I had a similar problem with my old DA and it was the wiring behind the head unit. There is no such loose wiring on the car so I'm thinking alternator. But would the alternator cause so much to go wrong?

I'm already sourcing an alternator, but I want to make sure thats the problem.

pizzamanprelude

i had that problem in another car i had, ended up that it wasn't charging. the terminal on the alternator had fractured due to the engine torquing up everytime i accelerated, over time the cable just crcked and failed, the battery then eventually discharged leaving me with no wipers in the middle of winter whilst driving home

. M i c h a e l

okay so i got a new alternator. car still has the e-brake light on (very dim) when its not. battery light is on (also very dim) until i pull up the e-brake (bright as normal)

speedo still isnt working although while i was driving earlier it shot up to the speed i was going for a split second and went back down. tach works.

vtec doesnt engage. no CELs.

turns out both the alternators (the one i purchased from a member off here and the one that was already on my car) check out just fine at autozone. i have my battery checked too and it says bad battery; which i kind of expected since this battery has died on me a couple times and i had to charge it. however, i purchased a new battery...put it in and what do you know? the same damn problems.

i dont even know what to do now.

fastlude69

i was about to say i gave ya a good alternator. hmmm bad or loose ground or loose battery connection it sounds like

. M i c h a e l

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fastlude69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i was about to say i gave ya a good alternator. hmmm bad or loose ground or loose battery connection it sounds like</TD></TR></TABLE>

oh i had no doubts about your alternator, i'm just stumped now.

i'm gonna change the battery terminals, check the grounds and see what happens

severs

I had a somewhat of a simular problem on a ford windstar. All of a sudden a bunch of electrical issues showed up, somethings worked and some didn't - turned out to be the Ignition switch module - not the key switch but the module. Good luck

. M i c h a e l

now i'm thinking it might be the vss? the speedo doesnt work...the tach wasnt working (but is now) vtec isnt engaging. but wouldnt there be a CEL for that?

. M i c h a e l

punkracerstyle

how did u finally fix the problem because im having the same problem

s13_240sx_92

If I had to guess I would check your ELD. Electric load detector. Its probably mounted in the in the fuse box under the hood. check out your service manual for more details..

Let us know know it goes..

Good Luck

Chris F

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by . M i c h a e l &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">okay so i got a new alternator. car still has the e-brake light on (very dim) when its not. battery light is on (also very dim) until i pull up the e-brake (bright as normal)

speedo still isnt working although while i was driving earlier it shot up to the speed i was going for a split second and went back down. tach works.

vtec doesnt engage. no CELs.

turns out both the alternators (the one i purchased from a member off here and the one that was already on my car) check out just fine at autozone. i have my battery checked too and it says bad battery; which i kind of expected since this battery has died on me a couple times and i had to charge it. however, i purchased a new battery...put it in and what do you know? the same damn problems.

i dont even know what to do now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Brake light could be that your brake fluid is low, but it shouldn't be dim like that.

Bad VSS would cause both speedo and no-VTEC issue, and no CEL. Sounds like a good guess.

peiyao

how old is your battery? it may be time to change it, especially if you see corrosion on the terminals. everything you just described was happening to me, except for the tach and speedo. The car was shaking really bad one time after I drove it hard on the freeway. All I did was get a new battery, change out the fuses of the stuff that's out (if they still don't work after putting in the new battery), and everything was back to normal. maybe your case is the same?

punkracerstyle

I HAD LEFT THE OLD ALTERNATOR IN AND REPLACED THE ELD AND IT WORKED FOR A WHILE BUT THE NEXT DAY THE CAR WASNT CHARGING AGAIN THERE IS 12.5 VOLTS GOIN TO THE FUSE BOX???

. M i c h a e l

okay. so i've figured out that something is eating the battery and its doing it very fast. in about a days time the battery is dead from sitting. car off. i havent touched anything as of late...so any ideas on what is still on while the car is off thats using up all the power?

. M i c h a e l

bump i NEED my car in working condition