91 civic dx , d15b, no codes

so two days ago my batt light starts flickering on and off

die hard batt, napa alt, both around 6 months old

batt was 80%, charged it to 100%


i have 12.4v across posts with engine off

start car, still 12.4v , turn on lights, alt kicks on, 14.1v


so why would the light be flickering on and off?

 

Check ur grounds bruh

 

engine ground from valve cover is good, i know there is one down by tstat, where else?

 

 

 

You have a bad alternator. Even tho you think it's new, its a bum rebuild. It happens, often.

It shouldn't be 12.1 when the car is on.

 

huh? thought voltage reg cycles it on and off

grounds look fine to me

 

no it regulates it..not cycles it. should be pretty steady at ~ 13.5 to 14.5

 

well sheesh, it's been doing this since day one

batt was 80% from 6 months of use

i bought a napa cuz i heard they are almost as good as oe

i'd never buy an autozone or advance

so why would batt posts say 12.4 when car running, then 14.1 when i turn on the headlights?

 

see end of this thread,

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/can-alternator-go-bad-no-dummy-light-3132414/

 

lol its all the same ****. They all get them rebuilt by 3rd party companies. None of them do any of that stuff in house.

 

another symptom is, it never comes on when the car is sitting still

only when i'm driving it, and usually when coming to a stop

can't seem to find any loose grounds tho

 

Remove the alternator and have it bench tested. Advance seems to have the better of the testers, at least around here. Most of your parts houses gets their alternators from the same provider, and nearly all batteries are made in Mexico now (including Optima's).

It sounds like your alt or ELD is bad, leaning toward your alternator though.

 

eld? would that throw a code?

when the alt went bad in march the light never came on,lol

once i see the radio turning off by itself i know i'm fed

if the light doesn't come on when alt is bad, and flickers now, perhaps it's acting faulty?

 

like everyone said check your grounds/connections and dont rule out the possibility that your alternator may be going out. in my case my car does the same thing because of a loose alternator belt as a result of me being too lazy to tighten it properly and my batt light will flicker when starting on cold days or revving too quickly with a cold engine. so check your belts condition and clean the pulleys with degreaser.

 

It may not hurt either to check all your connections. under dash, at fuse box, in engine bay. Just start unplugging connectors and plugging them back in till you hear the connector tab click. after 20 years its not hard to imagin a connector getting a little loose or dirty.

Fixed my intermittant head unit this way.

When I had problems occuring while stepping on brakes it was the ICU. moving the brake caused the fuse box to flex enough and start shorting stuff inside the ICU. It couldnt hurt to pop that off and check the inside for burnt components and traces.

Im only suggesting this because you still have yet to follow everyone elses suggestions and check your battery and charging system.

 

not doing it anymore,lol


batt is fine, i would have to pull alt to have it tested, not in 95 degrees i'm not , belt is good

see what happens here

 

"batt is fine, i would have to pull alt to have it tested, not in 95 degrees i'm not , belt is good"

Or you could goto harbor freight and get a $4 digital Multimeter

So how did you fix it ??? It just fixed itself ?

 

i have a meter, read original post


yep, not doing it now, got me, problem with cars this old, electrical issues can be hard to nail down

 

well, this seems to be happening not with every ignition series

meaning, i can turn the key and drive and get nothing, but, i may turn the key and get the flickering, if it's nothing it stays nothing

not only flickering, but fading on and off as well

seems to me it is a connection somewhere , but all the grounds in engine bay seem fine

any guesses?