Hello,
My GF's 88 Civic didnt start so I swapped in a new battery, car ran fine for a few days, and died while she was driving, turned out to be the alternator. Replaced that and the car ran great for a week, went out today, lights and radio all work, but the car wont turn over, no noise or anything. I break out the Jumper Pack and hook it up to the battery, car starts fine. Im sure in a few days, the same thing will happen. Any ideas what else could be wrong???

Thanks,
Jim

 

My **** is infamous for start probs. I feel exactly what u are goin through, and so far, my solutions had the same outcomes as you: It'd **** up again.

Anyways, what I THINK was my problem, was a bad solder by the shop that helped me with my swap. It was the vtec signal comin from the ecu, and the reason why I knew it was this was, after a while, my vtec controller stopped reading my vtec on the menu. Played with some wires and squeezed a few wires electrical taped together. Opened it up, and the wire was nearly comin off and was probably draing my battery cuz for some reason, my ecu stays on even with the car off. Soldered back together, and I'm happy to say that I haven't had any start probs for about a week. I also have my vtec controller read my battery volt too, and they are higher than before and do not fall that much in comparison as before the leak was fixed.

Anyways, If any of this was relevant to you, If you think the shop might have messed up some wiring, check the connections and make sure they are good. Disconnect the ecu and then plug it back in to make sure you dont have the same prob as I do. I just heard it was how they wired the ecu power or somethin. No biggie.

Hope it helped or at least made you fall asleep reading all that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jmckeone &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hello,
My GF's 88 Civic didnt start so I swapped in a new battery, car ran fine for a few days, and died while she was driving, turned out to be the alternator. Replaced that and the car ran great for a week, went out today, lights and radio all work, but the car wont turn over, no noise or anything. I break out the Jumper Pack and hook it up to the battery, car starts fine. Im sure in a few days, the same thing will happen. Any ideas what else could be wrong???

Thanks,
Jim</TD></TR></TABLE>

Check all wires to alternator, Make sure no loss wire's. Also check to see if you have a current draw coming from the battery when everything is off (Including key off).

 

also check your -battery ground wires. the one to the frame and the one to the block and make shure your alternator and belt is tight. if it's loose it won't charge right. this is what happend to me and this is what fixed it.

 

First make sure all your grounds and connections are clean, it sounds like something is draining your battery even when the car is off, to test this put an ammeter in series with the battery, it should read 0, if not start pulling fuses and when it goes to 0, there is your problem.

 

I had the same prob...turned out to be a loose wire on the alternator. But def clean yout batty terminals too...

 

Thanks for all the ideas! Ill try them out tomorrow!

 

alternator is not charging the batterey.

 

what if your power door lock acuator is broken would that cause battery drain?
my car is stock 92 vx and i just put in a alarm and a radio ?
my door lock is messing up now and getting stuck to drain battery i think
cuse motor is too weak so its struggling.any advice

 

current draw ? how?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2001-ITR#420 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">current draw ? how?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Quoted from above

First make sure all your grounds and connections are clean, it sounds like something is draining your battery even when the car is off, to test this put an ammeter in series with the battery, it should read 0, if not start pulling fuses and when it goes to 0, there is your problem.

 

it drains down w meter after holdind at 12.47.48.49
then goes down 49,48,47,46

it charges up then holds 4 three days then kills it ?
wierd ...i only drive it like 1 ce a week at the most is that the problem
maby new battery .after i replace the door lock ?

 

since battery and alt is new, and ill assume that means theyre both good, my sure bet is your battery terminals are not tight enough and/or are dirty.

 

in my case also?

 

no sorry, i wasnt answering your problem.

could be a bad battery, or your wiring for the alarm or radio something might be shorting out. but thats just speculation. measure the current, not voltage.

 

dc/ right
can you help ?
maby do you think it is the door lock?
or maby the trunk wire thats not hooked up ! maby draining the power?

 

ground wires, alternator stuff

 

thanks

 

 

thanks!

 

yup stuipd door lock
now fixed w no drain !!!


and found bad + battery termanal was bad so replaced it Oem of course!
maby that was some of the problem ! thanks for the info

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Newt Dog &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Check all wires to alternator, Make sure no loss wire's. Also check to see if you have a current draw coming from the battery when everything is off (Including key off).</TD></TR></TABLE>


that happened to me. my alternator went out when i was in a different state comign back from a concert. good luck

 

If everything else checks good and the car runs properly after a jump start-check the ELD in the MAIN fuse panel. This is not a hard test-the HELM is really your friend on it. The part is replaced as part of the panel. They are known to fail on ocassion.

 

maybe u have a short somewhere

 

maby its your + battery termanl grounding out