Rep Power: 0

84k miles on my 2001 Civic


For starters I want to point out that this car has always had electrical problems. The SRS light stays on all the time, the keyless entry does not unlock the doors and it will not lock the drivers side (but it will lock the passenger side.) The fuel gauge only works until I have about 2.5 gallons left and then it drops down to "empty" the next time I start the car. It slowly climbs back to 1/4 tank if I drive for an hour or so. The car's AM radio used to not work at all until I replaced the stereo. FM worked fine. The "passenger airbag" light stays on all the time unless someone is sitting in the passenger seat, then it shuts off. A/C works fine, Heat works fine, power windows and sunroof work fine.



Back in mid-May my Civic went from driving perfectly fine to being completely dead in a parking lot. The engine wouldn't crank and none of the electricals worked. I figure I have a bad battery or a bad alternator. I got the car jump started and I managed to drive to an auto parts store where they hooked up a tester to my battery and told me I had a bad alternator. OK, makes sense.


I take the car over to my mechanic and leave it there. Sure enough he can't get it to start in the morning. He replaces the alternator with a refurbished one, jumped the car, and I drove it out. The car got about a mile and it died again. Tow back to the mechanic and he tests the alternator and leaves the battery on a charger all night. Now he changes his story and says the battery is bad. He pulls the new alternator that he just installed and tests it and it passes. I buy a new battery and he credited me part of the labor. I'm still pissed and not going back to that mechanic.


Anyway, yesterday (so 2 months after the original breakdown) the car dies again; almost the exact same thing. First all of the instrumentation in the cabin went out (all gauges stopped working, radio and a/c went out) and then a few miles down the road the car completely died again; no electrical systems at all working, no hazard lights, no headlights. I had broken down right in front of a different mechanic and he sent a guy out with a jumper box to jump the battery; the car started right up.



I get it in his shop and after about 20 minutes he comes and tells me the alternator is bad. He said I shouldn't have put a refurbished alternator in there. He puts a brand new not refurbished alternator in there and...it's defective. Luckily he found this out before he took it out of the garage (the new one cranked and broke the belt, he said.) Now he puts another brand new alternator in, lets it run for an hour, and tells me the car is fixed. I took the old alternator core (the refurbished one) from him so I could go back to the first mechanic and get my money back.



I go back to the first mechanic and he puts the refurbished alternator that the second mechanic had told me was bad on a test station. The station runs some kind of test on it and says "pass." He tells me it's a good alternator and he'll give me my money back. I have no doubt that he's going to put that part in someone else's car.


So, my question is what the hell could actually be wrong here? I understand the purpose of the alternator and battery obviously but I can't even conceive of an electrical problem that would re-manifest itself two MONTHS after swapping the alternator and the battery. If it was a wiring problem I don't understand why the car is running now with a new alternator and battery. Maybe someone with more experience with Civics can shed some light so, here I am.

Quick Edit: forgot to mention that the SRS light is no longer on after I picked up the car today. I asked the mechanic about that and said that a bad alternator could cause that to be on and that it should stay off now that he put in a new one.

My last resort is taking a running car to Honda for diagnostic tests. I'd rather avoid that as I'm sure they'll find something to bill me for...

 
Rep Power: 518

This:

You expect FREE?
Do you work for free?



Alternate answer: Aren't correct answers worth more than wrong answers?

Wrong answers are free all day long at some places.



If the car is fine now, don't bother doing anything. Keep driving.

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Ok.

No, it sounds like you have several problems that have not been fixed.
Ignored, for whatever reason.
Most of what you described could have been easily diagnosed and fixed. May not be cheap.



The rest of the saga, I can't tell what was really going on. I wasn't there.
Battery and/or alternator.
One can lead to another.

Battery ran down while driving: Alternator wasn't charging. Why? Needs more checking. A loose belt could cause the same thing to happen.

Drove fine but battery dead when you try to start it? Probably a bad battery.

Common knowledge: Cheapo parts store rebuilt alternators are worth exactly what they cost. 2 months might have been a long life for that cheapo part.


If he didn't diagnose it, then he's probably just guessing.
Good guess though, it IS possible.
Too high voltage will turn the light on but set no codes.

 
Rep Power: 0

If I understand correctly, some testing stations aren't able to test under load. It might pass on the bench, but when in the car under full load/heat, it fails. I had that same issue on an old car of mine. Alternator tested good in 2 parts stores, but I decided to put a new one in anyways and never had the problem again. After 3 or 4 issues with reman/refurb parts in my second car, I will never do reman/refurb parts again.

As far as the other issues. the am radio issue just sounds like it was a bad radio, mine wouldnt play cd's til I put an aftermarket one in. SRS light could possibly just need to be reset (google search civic srs light reset, easy to do, takes 3 minutes, I had this issue when I got my civ). Fuel gauge issue might be a bad level sonsor deal in the tank, float, could be dirty, that would possibly require some time. Airbag and keyless entry...not sure. The thing with all those though is they might not exactly be and electrical issue (but is still possible), and most to me seem fairly minor and easily diagnosed/fixed.

 
Rep Power: 0

sounds crazy, but your headlight switch might be bad. I had the same issues as described and it turned out to be a $38 headlight switch.