So on my way to work I was at a light and all of a sudden my radio turns off(red light was blinking), lights are on but don't work or very dim, ABS light comes on(stays on) and then my gauges die. If I turn off my lights, the radio slowly comes back on, gauges work and then the ABS light stays on. I'm thinking it is my alternator, but I have no idea and an hour drive back home from work. This is on my 2003 civic EX with 145000 miles on it. Just did the clutch, rebuilt transmission and then the head gasket blew. I think it's time to get rid of this POS!

Any ideas or help would be great.

 

Whenever one circuit, [like head lights] has an effect on another unrelated circuit, [like the radio] it is almost always due to a grounding issue.

I would start by redoing, [not just eyeballing] the main grounds, those are the neg.(-) batt. post and cable clamp, the batt. to chassis ground and the chassis to engine ground.

Again, do not just eyeball them, disconnect, clean, reconnect. 94

 

What FCM said is a very good place to start.

If the problem is consistent 100% time and easy for you to replicate, take jumper cables ( the big ones used to jump your car with ) attach one end to your negative battery and the other end to your engine. If the problem goes away you have a bad main ground. ( like if someone rebuilt your transmission/clutch and forgot to hook up the main ground )

 

My friends car had a combination of both problems after similar issues. I went through and fixed some grounding issues under the dash where someone botched a wiring job and fixed some annoying issues he was having.

 

A lot of good info. Start with the main grounds and the ones that you can get to easily.