I've had my 90 y49 Si for about three weeks now and so far I am only experiencing one problem so far. Before I start messing around I wanted to see what you guys thought beforehand. Alright so when zero throttle is being applied, idling or just slowing down in nuetral for a stop or red my interior lights and headlights dim about ,oh, like 25-30% darker than what it should be. When I am applying throttle in gear or just blipping it in neutral I can see the interior lights brighten again. This also seems to affect the heater fan blower as I can hear it slow down slightly and speed up again when throttle is given.
The previous owner is a friend of mine so I called him and he told me that he never changed the battery while he had the car so neither of us know how old the battery might be. I tightened the alternator belt already but it didn't help the fading. So I'm not sure where the problem lies wether its the battery, alternator/belt, or grounds. Before I start messing around I just wanted to hear what you guys had to say or suggest, Thanks in advance.

 

If its not your alt strarting to go bad it might be something simple like a lose ground valvecover, negative on the battery etc.

 

it seems that your car is being pretty reliant on the alternator. get a new battery... but no matter what... your alternator is supplying most of the power to the vehicle I believe. and so of course when you throttle the car... the alternator spins faster therefore generating more electricity to feed the the electrical components.

i kinda have the same problem but thats because my idle jumps. and everytime it dips down ... my lights fade about 10 percent. even with a new battery... it will still do it just because my car does jump between 1100 and 2g rpms. im guessing a person ussually doesnt notice it because the car is pretty new and / or it just doesnt make a big difference. when it does.

 

Friend of mine told me to have the car running and pull the negative terminal off and see if it dies out right away. I think I'd rather pick up one of those battery/alternator testers from radioshack.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by shai x boi racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it seems that your car is being pretty reliant on the alternator. get a new battery... but no matter what... your alternator is supplying most of the power to the vehicle I believe. and so of course when you throttle the car... the alternator spins faster therefore generating more electricity to feed the the electrical components.

i kinda have the same problem but thats because my idle jumps. and everytime it dips down ... my lights fade about 10 percent. even with a new battery... it will still do it just because my car does jump between 1100 and 2g rpms. im guessing a person ussually doesnt notice it because the car is pretty new and / or it just doesnt make a big difference. when it does.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whats this I here about getting your battery "cycled" at autozone?

 

how about this im actually a mechanic...
well it sounds like your having alternater problems...
sounds like ur voltage regulator on your alternator is acting up my corolla does the same thing the lights dim and come back i wouldnt worry about it unless you really wanna get it fixed...
best thing take your alternator out take it to a rebuild shop and ask them to bench test it...

 

Just take your car to auto zone or advance or wherever, they can test everything right there on the spot. If you have a Helms manual as every honda owner/tuner should, then you can do the tests yourself. All you have to test for is out put of the alternator while the car is running.

 

I say dont worry about it. I am a tech at honda, and about all the civics do this. I had a 96dx, i have a 89 crx hf, and i have a 03 ep3. All 3 cars did this same thing. Normal...

 

How many volts should my alternator read out? I haven't picked up a manual yet. I lost everything when my old car was stolen (later in the year our garage was broken into as well) so I am starting over with almost everything.

 

Ok I have an update on the scenario. I was given a new autozone battery fairly recently so I put that one in. The car starts fine now and the lights didn't dim nearly as much for the first two days but now something odd is happening. I still had my old battery/alternator tester from radioshack (thought I lost it but it was just buried) and when I first swapped batteries I used it and it read the battery as good and the alternator as good at 12V. For the next two days things went fine and I would randomly use the tester here and there and got the same reading until today. When I got home I decided to test it again so I popped the hood and got a low raeding on the alternator. At this point I'm thinking, "Ok, probably the voltage regulator is shot or getting there." Went back out to the car two hours later and tested it again. Now the alternator is reading at TOO HIGH at 15V. Drove her to white hen pantry for some malboros($6.41 damn you cook county) and went back home. Popped the hood to get another reading, now the alternator is reading low again.
I had bought an alternator from autozone three years ago for my old Si Rex and had a lifetime warranty on it so I called autozone tonight to confirm that I was still in the system and I am so I guess tomorrow I'll bring the kah over to them and have them put the machine on it. If it reads faulty in any way I can exchange it but I was really not wanting it to come to this. Oh well....
Lastly, I did try one last thing- pulled the positive terminal off the battery while engine was running and it didn't die out. I was under the impression that if the alt. was bad it would die pretty much immedietly {sic}.

 

I do remember having problems with my clock display dimming and the radio losing its memory.
I cleaned the battery posts and terminals and it went away..

Check all your connections including the grounds...

 

ah those were two seperate subjects. Not tryin' to confuse you bro.

 

anyone? ttt?

 

Check and see if your alt is bad, un hook the batt, and your car will keep running if its good. Get a batt. tester and see what it says. Im running D series alt. on a B series motor, my lights get quite dim at idle, but once I give it just a lil gas, everythings fine... I could prolly use a new batt. tho.

Blaze

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Blaze45 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Check and see if your alt is bad, un hook the batt, and your car will keep running if its good. Get a batt. tester and see what it says. Im running D series alt. on a B series motor, my lights get quite dim at idle, but once I give it just a lil gas, everythings fine... I could prolly use a new batt. tho.

Blaze</TD></TR></TABLE>

I already did all that stuff. Unhooked the terminal and car kept running while the tester is telling me that the alt. is low, or "bad"...