I have a 98 civic LX that I was driving last night in the rain. I noticed my wipers started to move slower, the radio lights started to cut in and out. My dash lights went dim and eventually the gauge needles all fell to the bottom. The car finally died, I sat there on the phone with my wife setting up a tow. I tried to start the car and it fired up and I could drive it again. I went 5 miles and the car started to die again. Did the process over again and I was able to make it home as it i died in the driveway. I never had the charge light come up while driving. Of course the lights on the cluster showed up as if you had the ignition in the on position.

** I bought the car from a guy 2 weeks ago and installed a new battery and alternator.** Any ideas what could be going wrong or where to start troubleshooting?

 

Start by cleaning and tightening the battery connectors, and also the G1 battery ground attached to the chassis.

 

I was sure hoping you would reply. Seems like you know a ton about these cars. I'm going to get my meter out after class and check the reading on the battery. I can't see the car starting if the alternator is not working and it drained the battery. Correct me if i'm wrong but shouldn't the charge light come on in the car if the alternator is not working?

 

A battery load test by an auto parts store would be next. This is generally a free service.

Generally yes, if the charge light in the cluster works.

 

I assume its safe to say the light is working because I see the light when I start the car( then goes out). I've read something else about Fuse 15 under the dash??? Given your experience and what I've said are you leaning to bad connections?

 

Correct.

What CEL codes are thrown?

Doing what I said in post #2 is the first place to start, and is relatively easy to do.

 

Lets not jump all over the place, find a dmm.

 

I have a DMM that I can check with.

 

I had the CEL checked last week and it was P0420 and P0430 not related I believe.

 

Given that the charging light works and cat codes are not associated with the fuse 15 TSB, start with post #2.

 

Thanks for the help. I'll clean and tighten all my connections and then check the reading with my DMM.

 

I'm not a complete moron so I came home at lunch and ran some test. The battery had a good 11.9v the car started and it still had 11.9v so I know the alternator is not putting out the charge(14v) like needed. I checked the connection on the alternator and I swear to you it's like some put it on hand tight. Tightened it up, ran the test again and now I have the proper charge volts. I believe problem is solved. 

 

loctite i guess.

 

Yeah Loctite will be my next step.

 

The cluster warning should have stayed on with engine running. Did you miss it?

 

I never seen it. I did have a 96 civic one time that the alternator died and it never gave me the warning light(light did work). The made it 3 hrs but as soon as the head lights came on it died. I think the connection had to be bad because the nut was really loose.

 

To kill the engine, the warning light must have come on at some point while driving, but you missed it.