I have a 2000 Honda Civic LX. Everytime I turn off the car and start again, the radio resets and the AC buttons are all off. When I am idle at a stop light the RPM meter drops to almost ZERO RPMs. It goes up and down between 0 and 1000 RPMs? Has this ever happened to anyone else before? There is NO check engine light so I do not know what is wrong with it. Thanks.

 

It sounds as if the alternator is not putting out enough juice to power the car or recharge the battery???


Modified by b18cef at 4:29 AM 5/26/2003

 

Check your back up fuse in the engine bay for the radio reseting everytime.
Take your car into Autozone and have your battery and alternator tested for free.
If everything is fine, check your IACV.

 

it is most definatly the alternator. this exact thing has happened to my friends car. he put in 3 different alternators into the car. and they would not cut it with the system. it was funny though, because whenever it rained if we wanted to listen to the system we couldnt have the wipers working at all. and vise versa. but i would really get the alternator checked because most likely you will be changing it soon anyway....

 

it is most definatly the alternator. this exact thing has happened to my friends car. he put in 3 different alternators into the car. and they would not cut it with the system. it was funny though, because whenever it rained if we wanted to listen to the system we couldnt have the wipers working at all. and vise versa. but i would really get the alternator checked because most likely you will be changing it soon anyway....

 

Take you positive terminal off of your battery, if the car dies then you alternator isnt working.

You could also have it bench tested at autozone.

Sounds like you have a battery with a very low reserve, my battery used to do that, i had a battery rated for industrial use. And if i left the lights on for like 4 min it would die.

Your radio settings should only reset if the battery is reset, sounds like a fuse somewhere.

 

The car has been starting up fine. Does that mean the alternator is about to go or could it be something else? I thought that if you have a bad alternator, the car cannot start up. Thanks!

 

the car will start and run straight off the battery if the alternator is working. first thing, check to see if the alternator is good. check how much voltage it is putting out.

 

Thanks! It's going to be a pain going through all of the fuses to see if anything is blown.