Hello everyone i am fairly new to the forum and have just got my first honda, its a 95 civic dx coupe 5mt which i bought for 500$ as a project, i bought it non running from a guy on craigslist and had it towed to my house the other day, the problem is it will start up if i jump start it but soon as i remove the jumper cables the car dies, so im assuming something with the alternator or charging system,

Unfortunately the battery light is not coming on at all ive checked all fuses and the wires that go the alternator and their all plugged in tight, rlly stumped on this, reason i dont want to just go ahead n replace the alternator is because the ecu is not detecting that the charging system is not working so the light is not coming on at idle, not sure what else to check, if anyone has experience with this please let me know, it would mean the world because i really wanna drive it

 

does the light turn on when you turn the key to on without the motor running? If not the bulb could be bad. You can always just remove the alt and take it to autozone to have it tested.

 

 

if the bulb is burnt out is not going to come on at all. Even if there is a problem its still not going to come on. Have you checked the voltage output at the alt with a volt meter? Also check for power on the yel/blk wire with the key on at the alt.

 

The light is controlled directly from the alternator. It doesn't involve the ECU. Like pontiacman said, check for power on the yellow and black wire at the alternator with the key on. This comes from a fuse under the dash. The same fuse operates the light. The big white wire on the alternator output screw terminal should be live all the time. It connects to the battery through the underhood fuse box.

 

yup just checked the yellow and black wire from the alternator plug and it’s getting 12.5 volts, same for the wire on the stud of the alternator
Darn what should I do now,

 

Remove the alternator and have it tested. The problem is likely the alternator itself.

 

ye I just took it to autozone to have it tested n they said they failed it because it’s only putting out 11.4 volts, but I don’t get it since as soon as I remove my jumper cables the car dies, i would think it should at least idle for a bit before dying, oh well who knows, gonna order a different one

 

If your engine shut down right after you remove the jumper cables, there is no voltage in the battery at all. That´s what I think. If the charge system light don´t come on at all, the bulb might be burnt. Like it was told before already, but why you don´t just remove the gauge cluster and replace that bulb?

 

well I saw the oil light came on so I swapped that one with the battery bulb n still no go.

 

So the bulb isn´t burnt. The service manual says there might be open in the wht/blu wire if the charge system light don´t go on if bulb is ok.

 

Yay the battery light came on after I replaced the alternator w a used oem one!, along with a new battery She’s purring at 14 volts at idle and 13 w headlights on, guess it wasn’t the bulbs but the whole alternator was a no name brand one w 350k miles.!

 

Lol right after something good happened the car broke down like 5min after n refused to start back up, no spark anymore so u know what that means

 

How long had the car sat before you purchased it?

 

i think like a year or two, previous owner had stopped driving it n got a newer car, assuming because of it dying all the time

 

Check the distributor, the ignition coil and the ignition control module. I had the engine shut down problems with my EJ1 Civic couple years ago. I replaced the ignition coil and there where also a bad connection with the ignition coil module wires.

 

ye I see it also gave me a check engine for code 14,15 and 7 so I’m assuming I should just get a whole another distributor

 

The service manual says those CEL codes are for:

7 - Throttle angle
14 - Electronic air control (EACV)
15 - Ignition output signal

 

Weird, when I changed the oil all codes went away except code 14

 

Code 15 along with no start almost always means internal ECU failure. You may want to start shopping for another ECU.

 

Is this problem solved now?