Not a major deal, just sick of seeing my car do this, but I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to fix this... At night while driving, if I hit my window switches or put any other electrical load on the car the headlights and fog lights dim for a second. Not a huge issue, like I said, just wondering the best way to keep it from doing this besides paying 150 bucks for a BS ground wire kit. I have no aftermarket stereo equipment other than a 6.5" in dash touch screen gps, bluetooth, dvd and so on and a set of MA Audio 6x9's(bad ***) I'm assuming maybe cleaning all of the ground MAY help or maybe a slightly higher output alternator? Just want some suggestions, thanks in advance fellaz!

 

happonds to me in my eg, im runing HID's on fogs and head lights and i have a apexi grond recharge kit and works well on me so. made the 6 by 9's but not to shure

 

I'd say definitely clean the grounds and if it keeps happening, go with a higher output alternator. You pretty much have the right idea here lol.

And by the way, the HIDs are much less likely to dim because they use less power and they work like a relay. If you were to have enough of a voltage drop they would either flash or just shut off.

 

Awesome... No installed HIDs at this time, waiting for $$$ for a retrofit. Any other ideas of possible solutions before shelling out cash on another alternator?

 

Your ELD is what is pissing you off. Do a search on it and you'll find one long post about it.

 

Word, ill check that out. Thanks ryan. I also forgot to mention that while the vehicle is running, and I turn on my headlights I can hear a small rpm drop for a second also.

 

yea, all cars ive ever been in have done this. If the window is all the way up and I tell it to go up it will dim the interior light and the headlights. But what happens when you turn rear defrost on with car idling?

 

**** man, I want your car it has voice activated windows

 

yup, clapping engages the e-brake. I just have to be careful what I listen too on the radio.

 

While idling when hitting the rear defrost, headlights dim and brighten slightly along with interior lights, when cut off headlights get brighter.. Also a very slight flux in RPMs... Also slight flux in rpms when rear defroster is cut off and on with headlights off.

 

soo you turn defrost on and idle goes down a bit then back up?

 

that is correct. im getting ready to put some grease on the door hinges to see if that helps.... joking. but not about greasing the hinges haha.

 

lol. thats normal. something puts load on engine (lowers rpm). ELD senses that (rpm back up) to accommodate for the load on engine from alt.

 

not really bothered by the flux in the rpms, just bothered by those damn dimming headlights haha... im reading through the thread about the ELD and am getting no use what so ever out of it.

 

bigger battery, or maybe a new battery
higher output alternator
clean grounds may help very little. but yeah it really shouldnt be that bad to where u notice it though

 

It is like that on a lot of cars to where you can notice it. I've been noticing this for years and its really gotten on my nerves. I know its not a bad ELD, and I am not replacing it since its done it since I've had the car. No other ideas/suggestions?

 

96-00 Civic ELD is set up stupid. It allows the voltage to swing too far, too fast. If you want to verify, unplug the ELD plug in the fuse box under the hood. You can either pull the fuse box, pop the bottom off and unplug the 3 pin plug or you can unscrew the ELD and pull it up then unplug. If the voltage seems all nice once it's unplugged, that tells you that Honda just did a crappy job of setting up the parameters for the ELD.

Try that and let us know what it does. Should fix the annoying problem. However, it WILL throw an engine light.

You can also clean every single ground on the car up front. Thermostat housing, battery to body, trans to body, engine to body, etc. Remove the grounds, scrape the metal shiny on both the terminal and the part it attaches to. That seems to make the fluctuation a little less. However, it will still be noticeable unfortunately if you have the ELD active.

 

I did read that you unplugged your ELD ryan, have you had any issues spring from it? I'm also wondering if anyone has figured out a bypass trick or if a switch to an obd1 ecu would eliminate it. I have my CEL pulled out(wouldn't pass inspection one year with it on) lol and just never put it back in and just usually scan it twice a week... Probably put it back in when I pull my dash to do all my interior black to match some ctr door panels.

 

Also it has been a couple years since I've cleaned up all the grounds...my mechanic cleaned a couple recently but not all... I'm also missing the ground from the right front vavle cover to radiator support... I am going to get some large guage amplifier wire and some good connectors and make my own ground kit. Ill see if this helps at all... ELD is brown box correct?

 

i chekced tyo day and mine does the same thing but neve rbothered me enought to notice it

 

^^^but now im sure it will! haha you will be cursing me every time it does it too! hahaha. sorry. its a pain in the *** after you notice it... i drove mine for a little bit when i got it before i even picked up on it, but now i notice it all the time and it bugs the **** out of me! i will be making my own ground kit to see if it helps at all. im still kind of sketch about unhooking the ELD though.

 

Try running a "positive" ground. I had one on my 97 civic, and it seemed to help with this issue.

Basically, you run a 2g/0g/whatever-big-***-wire from your + battery terminal to the hot terminal on your alternator. Put in an inline ANL or glass fuse, 60 AMP should be fine.

 

and that will have no harmful effects on anything? ill probably go with 2 or 4 gauge for the ground kit...maybe a little smaller.

 

Help or solve??


And would the ELD have anything to do with blowing Fuse 15 in the kick panel fuse box?

 

I ran a 2g. I had no dimming after that, and I had 100w foglights + power windows. No big speaker setup or anything, though.