Pittsburgh
New Member
Hi,
I've owned the car for 2 years. It has 220,000 miles. 2 door, black, Civic.
Five months ago, the engine warning light would come on. Also, the emergency brake light would come on, even though the brake was disengaged. It was obvious to me this was an electrical problem.
Then, the speedometer started going crazy. It would jump all around. About 10% of the time, it would show the correct speed. The odometer still followed the speedo. So I would be sitting still at a red light, the speedo would jump to 150MPH and the odometer would be visibly moving.
The shifter would also not shift correctly. About 1o% of the time, it wouldn't shift when it was suppose to, and it would rev much higher than it should before it shifted. Also, some times when I started from a standstill, it would shift up way too soon, so the car would feel sluggish until the revs got high enough.
I plugged in the tester and got a major error code, but I forgot the number and I don't have it handy (I'll put it in here when I get it). The car won't pass a state inspection with this error code coming up.
I am guessing I will need a new alternator/generator. I'm an electronics technician, so if all I have to do is replace a single resistor or capacitor somewhere, I can do that. I'm a good enough mechanic I can change the generator on my own.
I'm looking for help deciding what is broken and needs to be replaced.
Thanks,
Pittsburgh
I've owned the car for 2 years. It has 220,000 miles. 2 door, black, Civic.
Five months ago, the engine warning light would come on. Also, the emergency brake light would come on, even though the brake was disengaged. It was obvious to me this was an electrical problem.
Then, the speedometer started going crazy. It would jump all around. About 10% of the time, it would show the correct speed. The odometer still followed the speedo. So I would be sitting still at a red light, the speedo would jump to 150MPH and the odometer would be visibly moving.
The shifter would also not shift correctly. About 1o% of the time, it wouldn't shift when it was suppose to, and it would rev much higher than it should before it shifted. Also, some times when I started from a standstill, it would shift up way too soon, so the car would feel sluggish until the revs got high enough.
I plugged in the tester and got a major error code, but I forgot the number and I don't have it handy (I'll put it in here when I get it). The car won't pass a state inspection with this error code coming up.
I am guessing I will need a new alternator/generator. I'm an electronics technician, so if all I have to do is replace a single resistor or capacitor somewhere, I can do that. I'm a good enough mechanic I can change the generator on my own.
I'm looking for help deciding what is broken and needs to be replaced.
Thanks,
Pittsburgh