Car stuters and light flicker, dim then lose power

LT72884

New Member
Ok, so here is how it all started. Thursday, as i was leaving school, i noticed the 2005 honda civic was acting strange. The heater fan was not blowing any more and the clock had gone out. I turned heatr off and clock came back. Blinkers started blinking faster and faster, then all of a sudden i heard twitching noises, all the engine warning lights and dash lights flickering and heads lights dimming, not brightning. I gave some rpm's and that did nothimg, seem to make it worse, car died and pushed it to an autozone.

We determined it was bad altenator. So i had my car towed to my parents where my dad and i replaced said altenator.

Drove great for 300 miles, then tonight on freeway, exact same thing. All the light on dash dimmed and flicker3d, blinkers blinking fast, no heater fan and then complete power lose. Used a battery pack to jump start car, made it one mile and it died. I drove with lights off because if i turned them om, they were so dimm anyway, but it would draw to much power.Jumped it again and made it about 1.3 miles, and it died, one last time and it made it half a mile to my house.

The battery is 2to3 years old, its a duralast and the car has 186k miles.

The lights never went bright, always dim and dimmer.

Here is the thing. Earlier today, the battery light came on. Went right to autozone and they put that tester thing on it and said battery was 99% charged and holding. All tests passed.

Now i am as confused as a snowman in hawaii.

Ohhh, engine light did come on but i can never get my phone to pull the code because the car dies before hand haha.

Ill try to pull it if i can

So could it be:

Short
Alt
Battery
Relay
Ignition coil

Thanks guys

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LT72884

New Member
Thanks for the reply=)

Its a brand new altenator that was tested the night before we put it in.

Is there a way to test alt while its in the car?

Thanks

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LT72884

New Member
I can. Ot start car unless i use a battery jumper kit. I started it tonight and the battery read(put metter on the battery itself) 10.80 volts and it slowly dropped to 10.32 volts with in 45 seconds. So i turned the car off.

How do i test altenator to see if its putting out enough voltage?

Thanks.

Oh, one note, my dad said some wd40 got on the back side of the belt. I highly doubt that that would cause enough slippage to stop the altenator from chatging the battery?

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Last edited:

LT72884

New Member
Ok, gonna ask a dumb question. How do i fully charge the battery? All i have is the jump start kit battery pack thing.

Thanks

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LT72884

New Member
boofoo said:
Does your jump starter also have a battery charger function? If not, take battery to AutoZone. They will generally charge your battery free of charge.
Click to expand...
Ok cool. Someone told me that a positive wire may be exposed. Which one is positive on the altenator? The one with the fish eye loop or the molex type connector

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LT72884

New Member
Ok, so here are the results. I took ot to interatate to charge it. They said battery charged 100% and tested good. They then tested with a load. And it passed.

Ok, so i went up there, noticed there was very little fluid. So i filled it up with distilled water and had them charge it again. This time no testing.

I brought battery home and according to their meter, it was at 13.4 volts. I got it home and i put my meter on and it said 12.89. I still dont know if i trust my meter or not haha

I put battery in car and it has been running for 5 min and my meter says 12.16 at idle.

I will let it run for 20 min and see what happens. Then i will take around the block

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LT72884

New Member
When fan kicked on, car almost died and battery light is still on

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LT72884

New Member
Ok, so it didnt make it to 20 minutes of idel. It droped to 11.8, 3 minutes after my first reply. I noticed when fan came on, it dropped to 11.61 for 2 seconds, then back to 11.8. Then when fan went off, it went to 11.79.

New readings as of this second. With no radiatir fan. 11.81
Fan turns on, 11.53 for one second then evens at 11.61 for 10 seconds while fan is on, then back to 11.81 when fan turns off.

Asuming my eter is acurate, which it was last month for my electronics class, then that 20 monute trip home, it went from 13.4 to 12.8 and im now at 11.78

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LT72884

New Member
Ok, its been another 10 min and this time i took a risk and drove it around. I drove about a mile or so and then back. Battery is now at 11.5 with no rad fan. Fan comes on it drops to 11.23, evens at 11.33, then back to 11.49ish. Car sounds like it is starving for air haha.

The battery is 4 years old and who knows how long it has been down on water. Also right side has a noticable buldge. Not to promenint but enough that autozone brought it to my atention. This is one of their low end value batteries. Just a dl 51

Many many many thanks

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LT72884

New Member
Ok, just tested my volt meter against some new AA and AAA batteries and they all read 1.56. So i think my meter is fine. Im thinking it is bad battery since in 20 or less, it dropped from 13.4 to 12.81. Thanks

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civteck

Respected
Registered VIP
boofoo said:
Your alternator clearly is not charging the battery.
Click to expand...
Not charging at all.. while its idling test the 10ga red wire on the back of the alternator and the black to any ground on the motor/body along with the above fuse check.

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