Dash lights flashing, engine chirping: 00 EX

CivicEx'00

New Member
First offf I've been reading this forum for the longest time and gained so much knowledge from it, so I'd like to thank all the contributors for unknowingly helping me out countless times

now on to my problem, I have a 2000 EX D16Y8 with almost 300k miles, and I've owned it for about 4 months. Recently I've noticed an intermittent squaking coming from what sounds like the drivers side of the engine bay. It's not super loud as to indicate a seized bearing or a belt, but just loud enough to suggest something is wrong. It will show up whenever it wants with no sort of pattern. It's not tied to accelerating, RPMS, breaking, or bumps in the road, but it's quick in succession to suggest it's a part of the belt system. This has been hard to track down because it goes away completely understand like 15mph, so I can't use a stethoscope or anything. I suspect it's the alternator belt or charging system based on my second problem. I have read up on it, and gathered it could be any of the following things
1. A slipping alternator belt
2. Serpentine belt
3. A bearing in any component that uses a belt. - this would be a b*tch to track down given the circumstances
4. possibly my shock/strut - I plan on replacing these soon, so we'll see. I hope I can fix this first
5. A belt under the valve cover? I'd rather not open it up and tamper with it unless I absolutely have to

now problem number 2. Ever since I got the car there has been a subtle flashing of the dash lights that you only really notice when you don't look right at it. I figured it was just a quirk of a 17 year old car, not a big deal. But every once in a while when I have my headlights on, the radio will turn on and off, my SRS light will come on , and my dash lights will flash more than usual. The last time it happened it was so bad the headlights were flashing. It was pretty scary. Instead of accepting that the car is haunted, I'd like to track it down and fix it. Based on other forums I've read, it could be any of these things
1. Loose battery terminals - theyre a little dirty and I can pull them off with my hands without loosening the bolts, but I wouldn't say they're loose enough to cause bad contact
2. A rubbing wire behind my intake? I haven't checked it out yet so maybe
3. A bad alternator diode - possibly, but it's an intensive fix so I'd like to be sure. The car always starts fine. Ive heard autozone tests won't reveal this.
4. A bad ground to car chassis. I sanded down the paint, so it should be ok

To anyone who made it through all that I commend you lol. Any insight anyone can provide is appreciated. Thank you in advance!

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Otto85

New Member
Start with the altenator belt take it off and fully inspect it, with the belt off check the altenator pully rotate it to see if you can mimic the sound or feel any dragging or it trying to hang up (it should spin smoothly with little to no resistance). Did you check all the grounds theres the valve cover to radiator support, trans to passanger side of the engine bay, obviously the battery negitive, one on the top side of the thermostat housing and 2 that are tied to your instrument cluster itself tucked under the driver side of the dash about 6 inches from the door and 6 inches from the floor (hooe that makes sense lol) those 2 should be bolted together so when you find 1 youll see the other.

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710times

New Member
my 2000 ex did the same thing and it came to be the ground wire on the left headlight. boofoo helped me out there. it was a broken wire and fixing it made the flashing/dimming go away along with letting my headlight work. when the wire was broke when i would check the ground with my test light it would made the test light turn on and dim on and off. the same thing it was doing with the cluster and lights. so i would check both headlight grounds. because thats what saved me

i forgot to add when i had a halogen light it worked no problem with the broken ground. but when i put the replacement hid ballast box then it wouldnt fire up due to the ground issues. as soon as the ground was fixed all this went away. THANK YOU @boofoo
 


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