off and on i've been battling small electrical problems with my hatch. lately, it seems like my alternator is going out. the symptoms are: when i am accelerating (giving any more than 1/4 throttle) the lights dim MAJORLY, sometimes when accelerating the lights will kind of pulse. the only ghetto wiring ever done to this car is when it had a turbo on it, the a/c was taken off. for some reason, the fan had to be put on a switch. this is the only home wiring that i've found on the car. could this be the culpret? sound like something (alternator/battery) is going out?

any advice is helpful

 

test your alt. first turn the car on and unhook the battery if it goes dead thats your problem if not test your battery if not that i would look into a new voltage regulator if it is not inside the alt.

 

Dont remove the the cables on the battery when you have it running you can cause more electrical problems by doing this there was a thread like a day or so ago that relates to this just take it to autozone and have them test the alternator for free.

 

i dont know about the elect spike but ive done this test many times on diff cars , works

 

It will only cause problems if you touch the two terminals together when they are disconnected.

 

I just think that your asking for more problems than whats its worth that test was originally for the older cars that had no computers or anything like trying it on a 69 Camaro or something. Why not avoid all possible problems and just take it somewhere that can test it for free? There was other reasons that I have heard just cant think of them right now??

 

my damn fen had to be put on a switch when i took my ac out as well anyone know how the **** to fix that?????????

 

I can't really see that taking off the negative terminal while the car is running will cause any problems. On one of my freinds hatches, the cable was loose and would pop off while driving all the time. We drove from Road America WI, to Gingerman Raceway in South Haven MI without it on and it caused no problems. I don't think it can do any harm in 10-15 minutes. Oh, and his car went through four motor swaps after that, and there were no electrical problems on the car then, or on the previous two motors.

 

supposedly when you disconnect the negative terminal on the battery, the alternator goes into an open loop and puts out more amps than it should or needs to put out.

here is the post vinceg99 was talking about:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=361352

 

well, got my alternator and battery tested today. both are fine..

looks like i'll be taking apart most of the car to find that power drain

wish me luck

 

i had a code 20 electric load..
was caused by a bad gnd on the relay that hides behind headlights (whitish looking plug) i say take ALL the gnds that touch metal and sand them until they shine!!!! see if it helps!