So we painted the valve cover on my civic today. Put it back on and go to get some food. Now if the radio is on and I turn the lights on the radio turns off, cluster lights are go dim. Then I turned the lights on, put the high beams on and then turn signal, car shuts off. I'm thinking it's the alternator just not keeping the battery charged. Any thoughts? Tomorrow I'm going to take it off and take it in to Autozone to get it checked.

 

i would say that is your battery. that happened with my first crx (it was a 89 dx) when the headlights went on everything went hella dim. and it got worse and worse every night. i thought nothing of it (cuz i was a noob lol) and one night WOW! didnt start, brought to pepboys and had to get a new battery. get a voltometer and test your battery yourself

 

It is a brand new battery but will bring that in also because I do believe they have free battery testing too, I don't have a voltometer. A friend said it could be a short somewhere but to me it sounds like the battery not having enough power. I hope it's either the battery or the alternator.

 

autozone/advanced auto should both test them for free. i would do that first

 

sounds like an alternator to me. do you get more juice when you rev it up?