Hello I have a 2002 Honda civic ex. I been having charging issues for over a month now. I replace the battery, the alternator twice and the negative ground wire. I'm experiencing dimming lights the instrument panel not working the radio shutting off and the heater not working. I don't know what's going on and it's confusing me. I'm running off my battery and when I hook up a voltage meter the battery was at 12.61 while the alternator was just at 12.51 when the cars running the battery is at 12.35 with the lights and heater on while the alternator is at 12.21. Please help me
Well it's certainly not charging alternator should put up at least 13.6 volts. Now if you're sure the alternators are good you got a wiring problem somewhere and if you have one of those fancy economy gas mileage civics some of those use the main computer to run the regulator for the alternator you could need a new computer and one of those
First, find a charging schematic diagram
- Check your alternator fusible link.
- Check all grounds, including engine ground strap, battery-body link etc.
- make sure the belt isn't slipping.
- Make sure ALL connections are clean and tight
Hi Justin. Reading your post it reminded me of a video I watched of Ivan Temnykh chasing down an alternator charging issue on a Civic.
In that case he discovered that the 7.5 amp Alternator fuse in the passenger compartment fuse box was blown. Inspecting the wiring he couldn't find any reason the fuse would have fried so he called his friend who is a "Honda Guy".
The guy said that a common issue was the wiring above the intake manifold support bracket shorting out on the bracket.
So Ivan jacked up the car, crawled under there, and removed the support bracket and sure enough the insulation on the wire coming from that fuse going to the "IG" terminal on the alternator was "rubbed through" and it was shorting out on that bracket.
In your case I don't think it's that "IG" wire shorting out. I think it's the "C" wire on the alternator (Alternator Control Signal ((ALTC)) grounding out on something which is keeping the alternator in LOW CHARGE mode.
It might be worth your while to go under the car, remove that bracket, and see if that ALTC wire is shorting out on that bracket (or something else)
Well my Vin is 1hgem22992l007436. It has a 1.7 d17a2 engine with 216,258 miles. The battery light doesn't come on the only thing that does is the abs light and when that comes on that's when my instrument panel goes down. It did that while driving yesterday and it acted like it didn't even have power it was like struggling to get going. Any advice from you would be much appreciated. I watch all your YouTube videos
Check your alternator output.
Well I did that once and it was like .10 volts below what the battery was at. And it was also dropping when the car was running with everything on like the headlight radio and heat. I just don't get it cause if I take the alternator out it would pass the test but yet when it's on the car it would be at 12 volts.
It should show about 12.5 volts with the car off and about 14.5 with the car idling with no accessories on. Any load, like headlights would pull it down a little. What do you mean by "take the alternator out?"
Like the week after Thanksgiving I went back to the parts store took my alternator off the car got it tested but it passed the test but I told them that once it's in the car it gets only 12 volts so they had me reinstall the alternator and they tested it on the car and it failed. So I got another alternator and I'm still having the same issues. The battery light doesn't kick on but the abs light does and when that lights on that's when my headlights don't work radio shuts down the instrument panel shuts off and the heater doesn't work. That's what happened tonight going to work I was literally driving dark for about 3 minutes till I got to work then I shut the car off and wouldn't start up again just clicks.