This just started happening today, just came out of nowhere. My car is a 90' Integra GS. First my amp for my subs started cutting in and out. I'm not sure if the amp itself is acutally turning off or not but my subs just cuts in and out randomly. I got out of the car and popped the hatch to see if the amp is actually turning off or not and of course it wouldnt do it for me when I was watching so I'm not sure. Then out of nowhere my deck started turning off by itself. And what really doesnt make any sense to me is everytime my deck would turn off my ABS light would come on for about 5 seconds. What the hell is that!?!?!? No other lights on the deash light up, just the ABS light. And on top of that my ABS light was also now flashing every once in a while while I was driving. I have had the car for 3 years and have never once seen the ABS light light up and today on my way home it just flashed for a second about a half a dozen times. Why would the ABS light just start radomly flashing and why would it come on for about 5 seconds and go away after my deck would turn off? And why is my stereo turning on and off by itself?

I know it doesnt have anything to do with my install because Ive had everything in there for about 2 years with no problems. Plus I installed every piece of stereo equipment in the car myself so I know its done right. What could be going on here?

 

see if you still have a good battery.

 

Could be a coincedence, as far as the ABS light and the audi equipment, but it sounds like maybe a loose ground or power wire and while you're driving making turns, hitting bumps, ETC it's causing it to loose it's connection and so forth. This would explain why it wouldn't do it while you were watching it. For that matter if a main ground for your car, such as your ground for your battery, it could have some connection with the ABS causing the symptoms for the same reason.

 

The battery should be good, its a optima yellow top thats no older than 6 months. All connections at the battery, deck, and my amp are all secure. I know for a fact my amp is grounded out in a perfect spot and its not budging at all. So my amps ground should not be a issue. The deck I just have grounded through the factory harness. What are some main grounds I should check out?

I'm positive the ABS light coming on is related to my stereo turning off because everytime the deck shuts off at the same time the ABS light comes on for about 5 seconds then turns off. Iit lights up kind of like when you put your keys in and turn them to the acc position, how all the lights come on for a few sconds then turn off, except its only my ABS light that is doing it when my deck turns off. The ABS light when its just radomly flashing while I'm driving and the stereo is on just might be a coincedence, but its obvious when the deck turns off and the ABS light lights up that its related somehow. And since my ABS light just started radomly flashing the same time this started happening I'm 99% sure it is also related.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GsDAteg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The battery should be good, its a optima yellow top thats no older than 6 months. All connections at the battery, deck, and my amp are all secure. I know for a fact my amp is grounded out in a perfect spot and its not budging at all. So my amps ground should not be a issue. The deck I just have grounded through the factory harness. What are some main grounds I should check out?

I'm positive the ABS light coming on is related to my stereo turning off because everytime the deck shuts off at the same time the ABS light comes on for about 5 seconds then turns off. Iit lights up kind of like when you put your keys in and turn them to the acc position, how all the lights come on for a few sconds then turn off, except its only my ABS light that is doing it when my deck turns off. The ABS light when its just radomly flashing while I'm driving and the stereo is on just might be a coincedence, but its obvious when the deck turns off and the ABS light lights up that its related somehow. And since my ABS light just started radomly flashing the same time this started happening I'm 99% sure it is also related.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Have you tried using a different wire for power? Maybe you're headunit is crapping out or i have another idea. When the amps go off i bet its because the headunit is loosing power for a second or so. I would try running a wire from the headunit 12v constant directly to the battery and see if it keeps happening. You might be drawing too much power on the stock harness

 

Just based off the fact the deck turns off and that causes the ABS light to turn on leads me to believe the deck isnt a problem. If it was the deck the ABS light wouldnt be effected by it at all. And even if it was the deck that shouldnt cause my subs to turn on and off. When my sub cuts in and out the other speakers and deck keep on playing fine. It doesnt make sense to me why my deck and sub would be turning off seperately at different times. I mean if the problem was through my deck shouldnt the subs turn off and on only when the deck does?

I'm thinking this has to be a grounding problem somewhere. How can the deck turning off, sub cutting in and out, ABS light radomly flashing, and ABS light coming on when deck turns off all be related? The only thing I can think of is maybe the ABS computer turns on the light if it loses power and then turns back on while the car is running? When the light comes on it stays on just as long as when all your lights on the dash first light up when you turn the key. I'm thinking maybe the ABS computer is losing power for a second when the deck gets turned off then turns back on, and when it does that it lights up the ABS light in the dash like it does when you first start the car. Would that make sense? If that could happen then that means my deck and ABS computer might be losing power at the same time, which would explain my deck turning off and the ABS light lighting up at the same time. I still dont have any ideas about why my subs are cutting in and out and the ABS light also flashing randomly though. All I know is this has to be all connected somehow because it all started at once and the only way I can think that the ABS and stereo is connected is through a main ground somewhere.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GsDAteg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just based off the fact the deck turns off and that causes the ABS light to turn on leads me to believe the deck isnt a problem. If it was the deck the ABS light wouldnt be effected by it at all. And even if it was the deck that shouldnt cause my subs to turn on and off. When my sub cuts in and out the other speakers and deck keep on playing fine. It doesnt make sense to me why my deck and sub would be turning off seperately at different times. I mean if the problem was through my deck shouldnt the subs turn off and on only when the deck does?

I'm thinking this has to be a grounding problem somewhere. How can the deck turning off, sub cutting in and out, ABS light radomly flashing, and ABS light coming on when deck turns off all be related? Would the ABS computer turn on the light if it loses power while the car is running? When the light comes on it stays on just as long as when all your lights on the dash first light up when you turn the key. I'm thinking maybe the ABS computer is losing power for a second then turning back on, and when it does that it lights up the ABS light in the dash like it does when you first start the car. Would that make sense? If that could happen then that means my deck and ABS computer might be losing power at the same time, which would explain my deck turning off and the ABS light lighting up at the same time. Still dont have any ideas about why my subs are cutting in and out and the ABS light also flashing randomly.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you used the factroy wires right, you jsut got a harness and matched the wires, no other splicing? I would check that wiring to make sure no one else messed with it, i've heard of people grabbing power from gauges for a trigger wire. And are the amps over heating? next time they cut out go back and touch it. If its hot enough that it basically burns you, then your amps over heating, and you probably either need to move it, or turn down your gain.

 

My amp will overheat when bumping it for like a hour or more in the summer when its hot, but when it does that it stays off for a couple minutes before it comes back on. The sub cutting in and out is definitely not my amp overheating because it will cut in and out several times in like a 10 second span then go for a couple minutes without doing it. Besides I was maybe in the car for 5 minutes when all this first started happening, not nearly enough time to overheat. And I do all the electrical work on my car and nothing has been touched recently. I havent done anything to any of the stereo equipment for like 2 years and up until now everything worked perfectly. I installed the deck myself with a wiring kit. I soldered and taped all conections to the wiring kit so nothing should be coming loose.

And I still dont see how any of that would be connected to my ABS light coming on.

 

Just took the car for a drive and nothing was happening this time. Drove around for about a half hour with the stereo turned up and nothing.

The only weird thing that happened was when I first went to start the car up. I turned the keys to start and nothing turned on or lit up on the dash for about 2 seconds, then it just started up like normal. I turned the car off and started it up a couple times and it didnt do it again and everything went fine the whole time I was driving it.

 

Check your batt. terminals, remove clean reattach.
Check the amps power lead connection at the batt.
As I mentioned on G2IC replace the fuse if it is the AGU glass type.
You may also want to check the ign. switch, a common problem on G2s. 94

 

Have you tried checking your brake fluid lately?

This may be an indication your abs is failing. Mine is stuck on permanantely on my Accord. Brakes still work as normal just the abs doesn't work. You might try activating your ABS during this time. Slam on your brakes and see if you skid. If you do ABS is not working. The codes for ABS get stored, you can take it to your local dealer and they should be able to read them out.

Sounds as though you may have a bad connection at your battery somewhere. Check that first as others have mentioned. The two symtoms may not be related.

 

The problems are getting even worse and its all electrical. Tohight while I was driving everytime I would hit my brakes my headlights would dim really bad, almost looked like I was turning them off. And a couple times when I would be coming to a stop all the lights on my dash would all turn on (like when you kill it) and everything was super dim. It didnt make any sense, it was acting like my car died but it would stay running. Then I would just rev it up a couple times and all the dash lights turned off and all the other lights brightened back up. Also, the lights were dimming really bad when I tried to listen to my stereo. It got so bad the amp would turn off every couple seconds (I'm assuming from voltage drops) and my headlight s were practically turning on and off on bass hits. This is really confusing me. I'm thinking its a battery or alt problem now but the car is running and driving fine. Starts up perfectly everytime. What the hell is going on?

 

When I mentioned grounds, I ment like the main engine grounds, the one off your valve cover and all those kinds (someone else please chime in and list all the main car grounds?) If now you're beginning to get headlight dimming and such, it's a main electrical problem, not just the system you have.

 

take your car to autozone and have them load test both your batt and alternator. Or just put a meter on it. Have you checked anything up in the front? check to make sure your fuse is ok and not like melted (had it happen once) and it keeps pulling power.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Check your batt. terminals, remove clean reattach.
Check the amps power lead connection at the batt.
As I mentioned on G2IC replace the fuse if it is the AGU glass type.
You may also want to check the ign. switch, a common problem on G2s. 94 </TD></TR></TABLE> Along with checking your batt. to chassis and chassis to motor/transmission grounds as I also mentioned on G2IC.

A poor connection on any of the above would cause the kind of problems you are having, [intermittent electrical problems], it's sure to be main powers or grounds, when so many, different, things are effected.

When I asked you to check your batt. terminals, the operative phrase was"remove clean reattach" did you do that, or did you just look at them and check if they where tight?

Also with the batt. to chassis and chassis to motor/transmission, how did you check that, I believe it is located under the batt. box on a g2, it is a g2, right?

Just because a ground is tight, "won't budge" does not mean it's a good ground.

You need to "undo" these connections clean them, and reconnect them, to be sure they are good and to eliminate them as the problem, when doing this you always start at the top of the steam, in this case it'd the batt. terminals, then the batt. main connection into the under hood fuse box and the main fuse[s] after that things split up into diff. circuits, hot at all times, hot in acc., hot in acc. and run, hot in run and start and hot in start, so now the only thing in common with them all is the ground, and all circuits are grounded to chassis, [including your amp, your HU, and the ABS light and ign. system] so you need to be sure that the batt. to chassis ground is good. 94

 

Uhhh, My car's symtoms aren't as bad....
But, it is doing the part where all my lights dim and the radio cuts off and then back on. I suspect this is from a loss in power. Almost like the car almost dies (losing voltage) Is the above advice something i should do also or is there something else?

 

check your cables and check your battery, just because it is 6 months old doesn't mean that it is ok. Your problem sounds like battery and/or alternator.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jondrethegiant &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uhhh, My car's symtoms aren't as bad....
But, it is doing the part where all my lights dim and the radio cuts off and then back on. I suspect this is from a loss in power. Almost like the car almost dies (losing voltage) Is the above advice something i should do also or is there something else?</TD></TR></TABLE> Well I would start there and eliminate them as the problem.
What is the MM&Y of your car?
What have you added to the car, [audio system]? 94

 

Well, I cleaned all my grounds and my positve lead on the battery. I think that might have been the problem because since then it hasent done that.

But, my friend drives a 96 accord and it has been doin some weird things too. The instrument panel goes crazy (needles go up n down) then it dies. Sometimes the radio flickers. What does that mean? Same thing?? I am thinking yes. I will do the same thing to hers as i did mine.

Also, just a tip for others... When i was cleaning all my contacts i actually removed the ground wire that goes from the battery down to the chassis and cleand all the crap off the lower end. It has about 3 inches of exposed wire that was filled with junk. I guess this is OEM, but why? Anyway, just thought i would pass it on. Seriously, when it comes to electricity, do everything to a T. It helps.

 

New to the site. I am having this same problem now with my 99 Acura CL. I did not put any nonfactory system, amps, stereo in it though. everything is factory. The lights dim, the ABS light flicks on and off while Im driving. Sometimes staying on, sometime's not. This morning though on the way to work the car shut off and drifted. The lights were dim etc while I was on the road. Luckily no one was behind me, soon as I pulled to the side, they cut back on and I was able to start the car as normal, what is going on? Help

 

Although this is a 5 year old tread, the same applies, redo your main grounds, [batt. clamp and post, batt. to chassis and chassis to engine grounds]. 94