hughheff

Okay, heres the situation. Recently purchased a 97 Civic. 4 Door. Came with a alpine alarm system. Alarm was working great until 2 days ago.

I turned off the car, went inside a store for 2 minutes. Came back out, pushed the button to unlock the car, put the key in and started driving. I then noticed the alarm siren was going off, but only when i stepped on the gas. I couldnt take it anymore so i stopped the car, disconnected the siren and was on my way.

Now when i step on the gas the ABS light comes on, and the SRS light is on for the 1st 2 minutes, that goes off. Also now my headlights only work on highbeams, day times are out. parking lights still come on no problem there. and the dash lights get alot brighter when i drive, instead of idleling at a light. also my deck (sony aftermarket) flickers on and off for the 1st 5 minutes of my drive. then stays on constantly.

Ive temporaly disconnected the alarm but not sure what to do. i dont think the alarm was the issue cuz not that its disconnected the same thing is happeing. but then again im not to sure as i just got this car. Havenet had to much experince with these cars so I ask, what could be the issue. what should i do. i tried disconnecting the posotive terminal on the battery for a hr to see if that would reset the ecu or memory or whatever has this car thinking its being stolen or something.

Any imput any advice. would be lovley. Was gonna pick up a ob reader to see if i can reset all the codes but not sure if i would be sucessfull..

thanks y'all

ezone

Get a voltmeter.
Hook it to the battery.
Monitor battery voltage..(If you have to, run wires inside so you can watch as you drive.)

See what the voltage is when the SRS light stays on too long.
I suspect you may find voltage much higher than it should be (over 15 volts).

Check the condition of the battery ground cable, from battery to the body and to the engine and trans.

hughheff

Thanks! Car actually started smelling like some one had direah in my engine, Poped hood to realize the battery was leaking fluid. so i definatly idenetifyed the problem as electrical. However, even though i never had to boost it i think it caused a power faliure someway along the way. abs light still coming on, low beams\daytimes still not working. Ill try and figure the rest out. thanks a milli

ezone

You smell Hydrogen Sulfide gas, from the battery.

Battery fluid (Sulfuric Acid) is 'boiling', because the alternator output voltage is far too high, overcharging the battery, .
Yup. The car was made to operate on 12-14 volts, your alternator was likely putting out 16v or higher as you rev the engine up. (it sounded like it might be putting out too low voltage at idle too).

High voltage can and will ruin electrical and electronic things. Expensive things.

If repairing the charging problems doesn't get the light to stay out, you will need to see what the code is.
High voltage blows out light bulbs in a hurry! Low beams are probably just blown out. High beams might be too (check bulbs first), or maybe the DRL controller took a dive.

ezone

tl;dr

Fix the alternator first.

Then take care of all the damage it caused.

hughheff

High beams working, turn signals fine. Going to switch bulbs on friday and hope for the best. Thanks so much for the response. It helps a great deal. DO you suggest replacing the alternator ? I did you a code reader to check and no codes were found. Lights do get considerbly brighter when the engine is reved, still after replacing the battery.

Once again, thanks for your advise. definatly got my in the right direction.

ezone

Then your DRL controller may need help. Resolder the relays to the board?

Do you know what a bad or blown filament looks like? Inspect first.
YW
I suggest you solve the charging problem, whatever the cause of the problem is. Do this FIRST.

If you try to fix the symptoms before fixing the root cause, you are wasting time and money.




You can either diagnose it and effect proper repairs, or fire the parts cannon at it and hope something goes right.

Handy pic of a parts cannon:



An ordinary code reader can only check powertrain codes (engine and transmission) unless you spent a whole lot of money.

Which warning lights were on again?
An ordinary code reader can't touch them.

hughheff

Going to check where my alarm is set up, to the left of my steering colum. I did notice something that didnt look right down there when i was trying to silence the system. something might be unplugged. Ill take a pic tonite and post it with my findings.

I just got the car 2 months ago, so far so good, until this electrical thing. Havent had a civic so i do apologize in advance for any question i may ask that may sound like a no brainer. That parts cannon is great lol dont really have loot to waste on ammo, so that is by far the best pic ive seen to date lol... ill do as much research as possible before wasting money.

blown filament, i just googled imaged it. but ill do my inspection tonite. Seemed odd they would both go at the same time, but if a serge actually happened yeah i guess i can see that happening also.

and again... thanks in advance