Looking for the experienced Accord Brain Trust to chime in here.

1995 Honda Accord EX Coupe AT. 330+K miles.
Notice this happening a while ago but could not get it to repeat.

Back in August the Battery light started to glow on, first it was barely noticeable, only could be seen at night.
Did diagnostics per the FSM and everything checked out.
Rechecked the following night the light was not on.

Mid August the battery light started coming on bright enough to be noticed during the daytime, more of a partial glow.
Again did diagnostics per FSM, everything checked out again.
Drove it around and did diagnostics, and briefly I was able to get a momentarily failure of the charging circuit which placed blame on the Alternator per the FSM.
Got a new unit from local ORLYs(kept my original as the testing seemed to be hit/miss)
Car drove fine.

September the car had a hard start one early morning, not at a usual time the car is driven and it was unusually cold.
Turned car back off, rotated key back to II(ON) all lights functioned properly at prove out, rotated to III(START) and the car started up normally.
Rechecked battery and battery connections. Everything seemed fine.

Yesterday hopped in the car early.
Rotated the key to II(ON) and all the lights did their normal prove out check, but the battery light was blinking. Similar to when an active CEL occurs, same timing of ON/OFF.
Rotated the key to I(OFF), and rotated the key back to II(ON) and the lights were all on steady.
Started engine and no problems on the drive.

Today.
Go to start car again, same as yesterday, battery light just blinking ON/OFF like an active code via the CEL.
Let it just blink ON/OFF and watched it do this for a while. Nothing else seemed to happen, rotated the ignition to III(START) and the car started up.
Did some errands everything seemed fine until the last errand.
Rotate key to II(ON) battery lamp is blinking away, all other lamps act normal. Allow the fuel pump to prime and the main relay to drop out.(D4/CEL lamp turn off). Left it in II(ON) for a bit longer than before.
Battery light keeps blinking ON/OFF.
Then all the Prove out lamps turn off, and the dash goes dead. Once it does this(ignition still turned to II(ON)) the ABS pump primed.
Normally the ABS does not self prime until after the engine has been started.
Rotated the key to III(START) with all the lights still off.
And the engine started as normal, along with all the dash lights coming back on for a moment and the prove out lights turning off, leaving me with the seatbelt light(unbuckled) brake(hand brake on) and the 'P' lamp illuminated. Gauges worked fine.

I'll dig into the FSM tonight if I have time, but I am wondering what is the failure here.
Ignition switch replacement not functioning properly?
Fault in the Main Relay?
ECU is done hauling my *** around?
ELD is tired of my ****?

Other notes.
About a year ago the ignition switch physically failed. Housing cracked and contacts were not making. Replaced with ORLY house brand switch as they had it in stock.
About two months ago the A/C seems to no longer function, worked, and is currently non functional. I have not looked into it properly as my schedule has been busy. And the above mentioned battery light issue cropped up. Related?
ABS priming seems to set that silly low pressure code at random intervals. Fine at cold start, fine at hot start, but multiple starts the ABS priming gets pissy.
Checked battery leads and main grounds/bonding jumpers, all seem clean and tight.
Battery is holding a full charge. Have yet to check what happens when the key is turned to II(ON).
Trip meter and Odometer seemed to be showing less than normal mileage, equating to false low mileage readings. Snapped the trip meter button a few quick times til it reset to 0000 properly. Seems to be accurate once again.

Of course all of these strange issues ONLY occur when I don't have tools or a meter on me.

 

New symptom.
Still haven't gotten to check anything proper with tools/meters yet.

Drove the car all day today, doing 80+MPH so as not to get run over in traffic. ******* newbies around here driving like it's L.A.
Drove like a jackass around a few fun roads to try to induce, something, anything. Drive it to failure as I say. Nadda.

Car seemed fine until a short jaunt.
Made a left turn, accelerated. Battery light comes on. Get off throttle, battery light goes off. Accelerate again. Battery light comes on.
Purposely manually downshift for engine braking, then accelerating. Battery light does the same thing. Hold throttle steady and the light goes off.
Right hand sweeper, take it at about 7/10s and nail a hollow(on purpose) with the right front tire. Battery light blinks when I hit the hollow.

Rest of the ride home no more battery light blinking.
Checked the cables they seemed fine, popped the fuse box off and looked for any loose/corroded/damaged fuses/relays and didn't see anything.

Hopefully this is simply just a bad battery.

 

Sure sounds like a bad ground somewhere.

 

On a 1995 Accord, the voltage regulator directly controls the charge warning indicator lamp by toggling the ground side of the circuit (Wht/Blu wire from regulator is the ground side to the charge warning indicator lamp). The voltage regulator is built into the alternator. The voltage regulator directly provides ground for the warning lamp if a problem was present. If everything was in spec, the voltage regulator removes the ground by providing positive source voltage on the lamp circuit.

Under-dash Fuse No. 4 (7.5A) via the Blk/Yel wire is the ignition input that turns on the alternator/regulator assembly. If no power goes through the Blk/Yel wire to energize the voltage regulator when the ignition switch is in the ON or START position, the alternator will not charge.

Note: Under-dash Fuse No. 4 also supplies the power side (+) via a separate Blk/Yel wire to the charge warning indicator lamp.

Since you already replaced the alternator and the issue seems intermittent, I would suggest checking some of the following:

• Under-dash Fuse No. 4 is firmly in place in the fuse box
• Blk/Yel wire that feed to the alternator and measure the voltage with the ignition switch in the ON position
• Wht/Blu wire. Inspect wire where visible even though it actually routes through various connectors not easily visible. Disconnect connectors at alternator and instrument panel. Check continuity between ends of the Wht/Blu wire.

For some reference, refer to this link: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/vie...text=auto_pres

 

Getting a voltage gauge would help with diag. That way you can actually see what's happening and if you're actually experiencing voltage drop when the light comes on. They make these things that plug right into the cigarette lighter. I use one on my daily to keep an eye on the charging system and charge my phone. Saves the hassle of wiring up a gauge or pulling out the multimeter which is not always convenient.

There's been a lot of good information posted here already that will hopefully help you. All I can add is that I had similar issues with an intermittent battery light and various other electrical problems. For me it turned out to be the actual charge wire from alternator to fuse box. It had started corroding internally for reasons unknown and was causing all sorts of problems. I finally figured it out when it completely stopped carrying current one night and caused me to run my battery dead.

 

Minor update;
Still haven't had time to play/diagnose on the car.
However there seems to be a bit of a consistency.
If I go do multiple errands the light will flicker ON/OFF at the third startup. Strange. But that's what was happening.
Once the engine starts the battery light stays off and the car seems to run fine.

Thanks Tech8, dug out my FSM and looked through a few pages and the gauge cluster wiring. Maybe that replacement ignition switch from ORLY is just a bit goofy as well.

Pulled #4(7.5A) fuse out, it wasn't blown but there were traces of corrosion viewed through the semi transparent plastic. Probably the original fuse. Yanked it out replaced it with the spare which was in much better looking shape. Did the NES trick and then made sure the fuse was sitting proper in it's space.

One other strange thing was the brown connector(ignition switch harness?) and wire harness that plugs into the fuse box above fuses #10/11, the wire harness itself was pulled down and one of the wires was bent and an unusual/unnatural angle(black stripped white). Pushed the wire harness back up into a nice sweeping bend, made sure the connector was set correctly. I'm not sure if that was part of the problem, but I also don't recall that harness being bent like that before nor any reason for it to have been bent that way. I do recall the door being unlocked one morning, so maybe some punk thought they could steal the car that way? Dunno.

With everything back, turned the key to II(ON) and the Batt light seemed to be much crisper light, maybe imagination. No blinking. Started the car up and it seemed fine.
I'll have to wait til I can actually dig into the car or drive it some more to see if it does it again.
Looking at the FSM again, I don't see a white with black stripe wire, BAH! Need to look at that damn harness again when I get a moment.

*I know this is all happening around Halloween and Dia de Muertos, but sorry folks car is not likely to be haunted. Know the original owner, he's still kicking. Unless the car killed someone on the assembly line, I don't think there is anything paranormal going on with it.*

 

Battery light stopped blinking, until two days ago.
Hopped in the car turn ignition to II(ON) and my battery light started blinking again.
Rotated ignition to I(OFF) and rotated back to II(ON) and the light was no longer blinking.
Car is near 340Kmiles, probably a good idea to locate those buried up high in the dash grounds and start cleaning.

 

Faulty alternator, alternator cable(or associated wiring), or ELD.

Since I do not trust the cheap parts store alternators, Id start there before doing anything else( FYI you have a very legitimate chance of getting 2 or 3 bad "new" units in a row when it comes to buying parts from these chain stores. At the very least NAPA is considered a step up, if that is an option in your area)

Otherwise Id order from Rock Auto......

 

Ugh, totally have similar issues. So surprising, but have had similar issues with Alternators. Last replacement required 3 to get one that fit and worked for more than a month.

 

In my world its not surprising at all. I've seen it occur too many times to count.

We will have customers that either replace their own alternators or have a low priced repair shop do it 2 or 3 times and still have problems.

Then balk when we tell them the alternator is the problem.....

 

I swore off chain store alternators a long time ago. Junk. No QC and always have problems. Now I always recommend a used OEM unit and replace the brushes/voltage regulator myself if required.