Little background info on the car: its had a VERY slow electrical bleed for a while now that drains the battery slowly over 5-7 months. I've taken it to several places and now one can trace it. I just keep my receipt for my 2 year warranted battery and let autozone recharge/replace it.

When the battery starts getting low but will still turn over and start (barely) the gauges (speedo and tach only) start acting crazy when I have the turn signal on. They will pulse in rhythm with the turn signal flashing. They die and immediately jump back to where they should. Basically they die anytime the green signal light is illuminated and are fine when its off.

And if I continue to drive the car in this state, eventually the dash lights, radio and headlights dim to a point they are barely on. The car won't die but if I turn if off, it won't restart and acts like the battery is completely dead. BUT, if I leave it for a couple hours, the battery will recharge to same point it was and the car will start again (even if just barely). So I don't think its an alternator problem.

This ONLY happens when the battery is low. Not a hint of any problems whatsoever when its fully or even 33% charged.

Any ideas? I'm thinking it could be grounds but why would the battery power level matter if that's the case? And this is my 3rd-4th battery in the last 3 years and this is the first time I've had this issue but it doesn't seem like it could be a battery issue.

Help me out y'all.

 

"""So I don't think its an alternator problem."""

You may want to rethink this. It sounds exactly like an alternator problem. BTW, the alternator will not recharge the battery when the car is off, as it seems you are implying in your post.

 

Okay, so why does it work fine when the battery is fully charged? And I've had an ALT go bad and it wasn't like this at all. Confusing to say the least.

And is there anyway to check the ALT without removing it? Its level 7 bitch to remove it on an H swapped accord.

 

did u ever figure out ur issue...i hav the same exact symptoms... my spedo and tach go dead and any use of electronics makes spedo and tach gauges jump . i had my alt tested it testd good...dont know what to do

 

Assuming youre having battery issues too...then I would check a couple of things. First, check to see if you have a parasitic loss when the engine is off. If that looks ok, then I would have both the alternator and the battery checked(Load tested).

Does it do it all the time, or only when the battery is low? If all this checks out...check your grounds back to the negative battery terminal. After first making sure your negative cable to the chassis is good(These need to be checked with a VOM, not just visually checked)

 

it doesn't happen all the time...its intermittent... i always notice my tach and spedo drop to zero...then when i use blinkers the spedo and tach jump with the blinks...if i use any electrical the gauges drop...it has a 9 volt drain on battery when this is happening.

 

i did a test by checking if i had voltage on the alt plug with ignition turned on...this check said i have bad voltage regulator...i pulled my alt and had it tested....they said it was good

 

when the issue is happening my batt drains ...when its not acting up it charges.