Ok, so I had my battery relocated, underhood fusebox relocated under dash, and my wires tucked for a few months now (no problems). I had washed my engine bay out last weekend because of the Marcus Dairy meet I was going to bring my prelude to but didn't. I washed the bay out many times before, only thing different was instead of using simple green on the engine I only had some engine degreeser spray. I hose everything off and let it dry, I didn't know some water got in my distributor and the car wouldn't crank. Battery dies on me (that battery is oooooolllldddd), so I end up getting another one (won't take charge anymore). Put the battery in, distributor's dry, car sparks right up no problem... Driving around I notice my charging light is on, so I'm thinking wtf is going on now... Get home, hit the circuit breaker on the battery while the car's running and the car dies (running off battery). I click the breaker back and start the car, still starts... now the abs light is going off too (which is wierd). I can't drive the car around like this so I had to leave it parked.

Now, what can possibly be the problem? I'm thinkng alternator @ first, but the second time I started the car now the abs light pops on. Someone mentioned the fusebox might have went bad (ELD I think?). I'm just think something stupid got wet and shorted out. I just don't wanna replace things without getting some input. Like I said, I had the setup like this for a while now no problems. Just after I washed the bay and then replaced the dead battery I get a ABS and Charging lights on dash. Thanks.

-l8r

 

fu*k....water and electronics (engine bay) don't mix, come on guys. Hand clean things and take the time to do it properly.

alternator is one problem by sounds of it. Try not to disconnect battery while testing your alternator. its not good on your car's electronics
take it to a store that does free alternator/battery testing like partsource/autozone

abs is huge system dependant on alot of things. I don't think other than insufficiant power maybe, that the abs would be related to your other problem.

maybe still, they could all be electrical shorts from water. Dry the shiet out of your bay and pray dude!

good luck

 

yeah I'm thinking the alternator's shot. Its wierd because I've cleaned the bay plenty of times the same way with this and my other cars and never had any problems. Guess I've found the 1 in a 1000 screw up. the digital voltmeter on my capacitor read 11.5v when I got home after first driving it and I knew something was up (usually reads 13-14v when the car's running). I'm thinking the abs light came on because my voltage was running low (which is why it didn't come on when I initially started the car). I'll just try n pick up another alternator this week and try that. thnx.

-l8r

 

For what it's worth, all newer Hondas (newer meaning probably late 80's and on) will NOT run with the battery disconnected. If your car was in perfect shape it still would die if you disconnected the battery.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hawkze_2.3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">For what it's worth, all newer Hondas (newer meaning probably late 80's and on) will NOT run with the battery disconnected. If your car was in perfect shape it still would die if you disconnected the battery. </TD></TR></TABLE>

really, I thought it would atleast last a bit on the alternator and not die instantly unless I'm mistaken.

 

I have tried this on a newer Ford truck and it ran off the alternator alone (battery disconnected), but I have tried it on 2 Preludes and they both died.

 

hmm, only reason I mentioned it is because when I had my old hatch w/ a b18c swap I kept throwing alternator belts (bent pulley), so one time I was driving back me and my friend swapped batteries and his car was running w/o the battery while we swapped mines in his car (just so I could make it home). I don't expect it to run forever but, I don't think it should just immediately die when the battery gets disconnected on a running car. I could be wrong tho.

 

Where are you in CT? I work at a parts store in West Hartford, and I can test the alternator here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Giant_Bean &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Where are you in CT? I work at a parts store in West Hartford, and I can test the alternator here.</TD></TR></TABLE>

thnx for the offer man, I just swapped in another alternator and the problem is fixed. loooks like the alternator was on its way out anyways, it had a bunch of crud on the underside of it.