Symptoms are:all lights dim while at idle and acceleration up till about 4,000 rpm. Than it the voltage flips from 14.0 volts to 14.4.

Its gotten so bad people think im flashing my highbeams. Its been doing this for years but I just put my car back out on the road with a new swap and its worse. The funny thing is Ive had so many different setups and they all did this. Right now its a 96 EX with a stock 99 Gsr motor no CELs no suspicious wiring and yes I tried a new alternator. The car did this when I was single cam turbo on the stock ECU and when I ran a chipped P28. I still had the problem when I ran an Obd1 ZC turbo. All with different alts.

Un pinning Alt C just slows the dimming and brightening. I also Ive tried multiple batteries. Please help. I just searched for 2 days and got all the posts I read a year or 2 ago that did help.

 

Perhaps its a lose or coroded ground somewhere? Im going to assume its not a battery or alternator issue. Perhaps the wiring going to your head light switch has a bad connection point? Get an ohm meter and see what kind of readings your getting at the socket, (take the bulb out and test from there and then compare it to a friends car.

That should help point you in the right direction, Its got to be a switch or wiring issue now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nocturnaldragon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Perhaps its a lose or coroded ground somewhere? Im going to assume its not a battery or alternator issue. Perhaps the wiring going to your head light switch has a bad connection point? Get an ohm meter and see what kind of readings your getting at the socket, (take the bulb out and test from there and then compare it to a friends car.

That should help point you in the right direction, Its got to be a switch or wiring issue now. </TD></TR></TABLE>

After doing this put the bulb back, and use the tester to measure voltage drop, from power through the circuit to the ground.

 

Oh yeah forgot to mention all grounds have been upgraded and more have been added. And this is not just the headlight circuit its the whole car even the pitch or the blower motor changes slightly. Its more of a charging system problem. Any1 know how to test a ELD?

 

I know there are a lot of you out there with this problem. Ive seen a couple of cars around on the Ave with dim headlights that get bright right before you shift.
Please

 

Memorial Day Bump

 

Bump because I just fixed my headlight.

 

bad ground.....loose/burned/done wit

 

did you mess with any of the stock grounding?

 

Yup, I forgot to mention it in the first post but I hit all the grounds with an angle grinder and I added another ground to the valve cover and one on the back of the block and one off the negative terminal. Even cleaned up the headlight and AC grounds.

Any1 know of a sensor that puts out about 5 or 6 volts when the car is warm?

The cars system charges harder when Alt C wire is feeding about 5 volts to the ECU. Then when Alt C goes up to 10 -11 volts at warm idle or low rpm acceleration, the alernator drops its voltage.

Since I have no money to start buying new parts and dont even know where the Electric Load Detector is to trouble shoot it, Im gonna try to find a sensor that I can tap into to feed the ECU about 5 volts. I think thats what temprature sensors put out.

Good idea or bad idea? I need help... Please
P.S. what are the sensors under the dizzy? I know a temprature sensor is on the thermostat housing, but what are the others?

 

Get a helms manual... it's really the best resource you could ask for.

As far as your questions I will look it tomorrow in mine if noone responds.

 

I had the same problem and i changed my alternator and battery still same problem, im going to take it to NTB on June 5th and see what they say

 

Thank you.
With all the smart people on here who can write dcript and reflash a ECU rom, somebody has go to know how the alternator varies its voltage and figure out how to cheat it.

I saw a turboed 4dr ek tonight that had the same problem so I pulled a uturn and cased him but when I got behind him he kept blowing off and trying to get away.

 

man i had that same problem and they thought it was my alternator, but when they changed it it did the same thing all the way until i sold the car

 

Id love to sell the car but Ive had it 8 years and 5 motors. Its pretty much worthless to any1 but me at this point. Bump

 

To follow up:
Un pinning ALT C which is pin 19 on connector A (OBD2A) seems to work well to charge the system while driving around town. The lights get real bright, reminds me of when the car was new. But voltage seems to slowly drop at 55 and under on the highway or at long stops.

Feeding about 5 volts taken from a sensor under the dizzy will keep the lights at what I will describe as acceptable but below normal level.

Please keep this thread going if you have any input.

 

 

check grounds.

 

back from the dead..........

did you ever figure it out? Im having the same problem

 

Back from the dead six years later.

I've had the although changed. The dimming got so bad during, usually, acceleration that I installed hids to mask the effect.

I usually notice on the cluster and hvac controls.

I assume it is a bad ground, but don't know how to go about fixing it.

 

yea when I use my power windows or headlights my idles surges alittle too. the guy before ghetto rigged the grounding also.