Has anyone else ever had this issue. my entire electrical system is pulsing. the lights are going dim then normal bright and back and forth.

I replaced the alt.
checked all main grounds
when i disconnect neg battery cable, car shuts off.
problem started yesterday.

If you know about this problem, please give me some direction to go to. even looked in my helms and it doesn't cover a lot about electrical systme troubleshooting as a while. just very basic.

no codes or lights giving codes.

 

anyone?

someone suggested i check the harness to ensure it's not grounding the main power wire from the alt to the fuse box. any other ideas?

 

There's an ALT/VSS fuse under the dash. I would check that first.

 

hrmm ok i'll check it out.

 

update:
check all main power wires, nothing chafed through the housing, so i haven't cut the harness open yet, the #13 fuse under the dash was popped it was a 7.5 and so I repalced it with a 10 just for the mean time to get the car started. no luck. it poped that oneand the next too right as soo as i turned the key. so there's defenitally a major short someplace.

 

Sounds like the alternator voltage regulator may be going out too and spiking more than 12 volts. Hard to say can you give any more detail? If your popping fuses just by turning the key on you def have a short somewhere, have you done any wiring to it recently?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by oscarmayer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Has anyone else ever had this issue. my entire electrical system is pulsing. the lights are going dim then normal bright and back and forth.

I replaced the alt.
checked all main grounds
when i disconnect neg battery cable, car shuts off.
problem started yesterday.

If you know about this problem, please give me some direction to go to. even looked in my helms and it doesn't cover a lot about electrical systme troubleshooting as a while. just very basic.

no codes or lights giving codes.</TD></TR></TABLE>

bro looks like u put a bad alternator thats why ur car shuts off when u unplugged the batery wire...

 

I replaced the alt with a known working unit.

no wiring changes have been done recently last one was like 4 months ago.

I do have 1 idea that I got in the shower this morning (that's where half my ideas for fixing crap hits me at) the battery itself could have gone bad. I'm only thinking this because nothing has changed except some tuning for gas economy on my s300, and on my old dodge truck the battery had a ahsort that poped a fuse and wold let the truck start at all.

my car cranks but with the fuse popped it won't start and before i removed the battery to get to the harness udner it lastnight the car woudl start but just run like poo, now it won't even start and this is when it started popping fuses. I'll let you know tonight after i get home for work and have the bat tested. i'll take the odl alt in too to have it checked (but i suspect it's ok)

 

if it's not a bat, then someoen is welcome to PM me to come over and help and get some $ for helping. i have to have this car running by friday evening.

 

ok, ?Here's where I'm at. I have traced it through the firewall into the fuse box out the fuse box up to the dash gauge pod. THis is where i stopped lastnight about 11pm. (I ****** hate shorts!!!!! aRHGGHHHHHHHHH)

There is 1 connection that if plugged in something on it is shorting out the dash lights system that isc ausing the entire problem. If i plug it in, the + and - and both connected and i get a signal telling me i have connection. if i remove it everything is fine. This is the biggest plig and it has 4 wires on 1 side that I now have to find where they go. once of the 4 wires (maybe2) is causing the short. when i find the part that's causing it, i'll find the short.

FYI did I tell you how much I loath electrical problems???????

 

I forgot to add the dist , the alt and the vs are all disconnected right now just to eleminate them from the mix.

 

ok think i found the issue. i'm running an s-300 and no O2. the front O2 plug was rubbing against the block and i think was causing the short. I'll be testing the rest of the car out tomarrow to check foe any more issues. once that's done then friday i'll be preping the car for the import face off.

 

hehe, hey if you find out what's wrong with it let me know. i have just spent a week with the exact same problem on my 97 civic dx. the dealership and many others have only told me that it has to be the alternator or the battery. well, two alternators later and a new battery tells me that was certainly not the answer. and you must know how hard it is to get an alternator in and out of those cars. not gonna do that anymore. when this problem occured the first thing i did was put an analizer on it and four sensors were out: O2, tps, speed sensor, and one i couldn't find the code for. i know the speed sensor went out the same time the pulsing started because the speedometer stopped working and it turns out it just blew the fuse. not sure about the other sensors though. the car will run fine on battery untill it dies since it not getting charged and the pulsing is now totally inconsistnet. sometimes it's there sometimes not. good luck to you, if i figure it out first i'll let you know.

 

Bump... for a similar problem.

 

Hello?

 

Anyone got updates?

 

Bump too.

I got a 94 accord that is doin somethin similar. My lights flicker and sometimes it seems like the car almost stalls because my stereo turns of and turns on. I dont know if this is related to the fact that my idle is a little low. but it even happens when my car is idling right at 1000 rpms. The only other thing i can think of is that it is getting to high in volts due to the alternator belt being too tight. Let's frickin figure this out. Damn electrical systems.

 

Any one ever figure out what is causing this problem ? I now have the same problem with my 97 civic HELPPP