Hello all, I have a 1990 CRX Si, its stock with 178k miles. The car runs great but I've been encountering some strange events. A few weeks ago the battery light started flashing on randomly. Checked battery and alternator at local parts store and said both were fine. Battery is 3 years old, alternator is 2 years old. I noticed the battery light would flicker upon shifts and bumps on the road so I thought it was a loose connection. Can't find anything obvious. When i first start driving the car the battery light may be off, but then comes steady on for the rest of the drive. It's been staying on more often now.

This morning while driving on the freeway the radio cut out. I have a cheap clarion radio with in-dash cd player. The power was still on the radio and displayed the station or cd track but no sound. Then the tach started jumping erratically and then went dead. Car was still driving perfectly fine. Then 10 minutes later both the tach and radio came back on functioning normally!

Sometimes when the car is warm I start it and then it struggles to idle then dies. Turn off then car starts right up. This happens once in a while, maybe once every other month. I have also replaced the distributor, coil, cap, rotor, plugs, plug wires.

Through all of this the car always starts and runs just fine. I also check for codes on the ECU and there are none. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Henry

 

Your battery light should only come on if there is not the correct amoount of voltage coming from your alternator. The alt could internally be starting to fail or the pulley on it could be starting to seive up. I would suggest replacing the alternator. I miss shifted and hit 7500 rpm in my old 88 integra a coulpe of years ago and that was all she wrote for that alternator. Light was on belt and pulley were turning but I was riding the battery home that night.

 

sound like an alternator starting to go bad

 

I will check the alternator pulley and belt closely. Last week when I checked the belt seemed pretty tight. I have a 2 hour round trip commute in which the battery light may stay on 80-90% of the time. Yet the car starts up great and all the lights are plenty steady and bright. I've been driving the car like this for at least 3 weeks. I would think if the alternator was bad I would have had a dead battery by now. Hmmm.

 

re-check all your ignition connections (coil, wires, dizzy etc.) the wires in the dizzy may not all be securely connected and are jiggling around. also check that all the wires coming off the positive battery terminal are connected securely.

 

omg this is exactly my prob. How did you fix it

 

arro anyone?

 

it is a ground issue.. I have had this problem .. There are a few ground under the dash.. and there is one ground right under the rear trunk latch.. check them all..

check the grounds on the tranny and the vavle cover.. and also get the ground on the water housing hear the thermostat.

im pretty sure it is a grounding issue .. let us know.

 

hey thanks Ill do that

 

I have this same problem on my girlfriends 97 Civic LX. It has an aftermarket radio but has for many years without an issue. Started happening about a year ago. Found someone had subwoffers installed previously and left the RCA wires. I removed them and the problem seemed to go away for a while but it's back.

Where are the grounds under the dash someone referred to?

 

Ditto what havok hybrid said, check all your grounds, start with the batt. to chassis and chassis to engine main grounds, do not assume they are good just because they are tight, remove, clean both the terminals and the ground point and reattach, check all the engine harness grounds and the dash harness grounds.
Although it can't hurt to check the ground in the rear, it is not your problem, it is the ground for tail/brake/signal/back-up lights.

Your right if the alt. was bad you would have had a dead batt. a long time ago.

When different circuits are affected with the same kind of intermittent problems it is almost always a grounding problem. 94