I purchased the honda civic a year ago its a 2005 honda civic and everything is fine except it tends to losing power when too many things are used.

I have the radio on, heater is near max, its raining or snowing so i have the defroster on for the back window and the wipers are on with my full headlights since i work at night in the delivery business. After 2 hours of so on the road the radio would start changing stations randomly or the power to the radio would shut off. The speed of the wipers would slow down from time to time and eventually i had the engine power nearly shut off. I think the battery is the original one but the dealership assured me its fine they tested it. It seems that my little battery can't handle the load of having everything on at once.

The check engine light sometimes turns on and stays depending how much fuel i have in the car. Honda told me its the air pressure in the gas since i didn't tighten the gas cap properly just for the check engine light coming on from time to time.

Should i get a new and stronger battery or is this another problem? The car is still under 2 more years warranty from the used honda dealership.

 

check the alt. when you get the battery checked.

 

its your alternator.

 

yep hes right is the alternator, but it wouldnt be bad to get a battery with more crancking amps cuz the stock battery on those things are really small

 

4x alternator had that happen to me twice

 

Had same thing happen to me, same year of car. Had to replace original battery in June/09. They only last 4-5 years. After doing that, a few months later I had same symptoms as you, I had my alternator tested at an Autozone under load (alot of stuff running inside the car radio,A/C,etc. and the voltage read low like yours and with no load it was fine. If you call autzone there is some warning that came up on their computer (if you're looking to buy a replacement alternator which I almost did, about a part called an ELD) which made me take it to my Honda dealer. This part is called an electrical load detector (ELD) unit that is in your under hood fuse box (between the 40 and 80 amp fuses) which can be the problem and give you symptoms of a bad alternator. Weird, I know, I never heard of it either. Call Autozone or Honda, they'll tell you what I'm talking about. Check into that first.

 

If it's anything like our old '86 Honda, a connection somewhere in the wiring harness is loose. This is a major PITA to locate and we had the impression that the dealership found it by accident, after trying everything else. It involved inspecting each connection visually until the loose wire was found, and I think it was something ridiculous, like a wire that passed near the base of the driver's seat.

I would hope a 2004 model would have better diagnostics than our Honda did several years ago, but some glitches are really hard to pin down. It seems to me that it may have gotten worse as the engine heated up, but maybe I'm thinking of the radio on my 1980 VW. ;o)

Really, that's my only suggestion; I'm not an auto mechanic, but that's what happened to Good Ol' Max.

* my 01 neon was doing same thing friend,it was a misfire caused by a faulty plugwire,change plugs and wires and dont buy cheap plugs,hope this helps

 

symptom souds very much the Alternator...

had mines replace twice...roughly every 100k

do the basic alternator test on yur car...

while care is turned ON......unplug 1 of the battery terminals..i forgot which 1 positive or negative....search it on Google....
and the car should keep running (stay on = good alternator)
if NOT then its bad/weak need replacing

 

Just take it to Autozone or Oreilley for free electrical system test

 

Don't change the alternator until you tests and check to see if working. Get a DMm and test it.