Hi guys,
My cars been running great but,
recently, my speedometer stopped working &
then my car died.
turned out the aternator fuse under the dash blew &
prevented the alternator from charging the battery.
Once I replaced the fuse,
everything went back to normal,
even the speedo but,
today the fuse popped again.
I checked for any naked wires that might be shorting but,
found none.
does anyone have any ideas what my problem might be?

Thanks,
JAY.

 

Do you have a manual for the car? Chiltons or Honda one? Look at a wiring diagram and begin to trace your wires. Look at the wires at the alternator and under the dash, anywhere they meet a connector and could be exposed out of the insulation of the wiring harness. The wiring diagram should give you wire colors with tracers on them to identify which wire is which. Test the wire with a DVOM to determine which wire is shorting, or where the problem is.
The wiring diagram will tell you what each wire should be carrying:
i.e.
+voltage,
- voltage(ground)
etc.
Test the wire with the car running and with a good fuse in to determine if one of the wires has the wrong voltage/signal. You could have a short to ground or a short to postive, (causing to much current to be drawn through fuse) or a number of other things.

 

You most likely have a short in the Secondary O2 sensor heater circuit, I had the same problem...took me forever to find it, right after I found it Acura produced a Service Bulletin announcing that they discovered this

Austin

 

use a higher amperage fuse?

 

thanks for the info v-a,
the fact that the fuse doesn't pop all the time makes it kinda hard for me to trouble shoot.

austin, i love you!
that's exactly the type of info i was looking for!
everything has been fine until this &
i haven't done anything to the car in months that may have caused this.
i will definately look into this

magic, using a higher amperage fuse may cause my car to burn down.
as tempting as that sounds right now,
i know i'd miss it once it was gone!!!

thanks a million for the help guys.
JAY.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by magic hat #9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">use a higher amperage fuse? </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I had the same problem with my hatch...alternator fuse kept blowing.....turns out there were two bare wires underneath the steering column that were causing the short. Taped them up and now everything is fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by magic hat #9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">use a higher amperage fuse? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats a bad idea, If the current makes it thru the fuse the wiring could get damaged or worse. The fuse is to stop a surge or extra power from going through to prevent the smaller wires form harm.

 

also, check the junctions behind the intake manifold, that circuit runs through one of those junctions.

 

Great post. Hmm i have some exposed horn button wire.