Rep Power: 0

A couple days back the electronics starting turning on and off while driving. First it was the radio and then it was the fans for my A/C. Yesterday morning I tried starting my car and it had trouble turning over but nothing too bad. I drove it about 20 miles and the whole time I could tell the battery was draining. ALL the interior lights were out the A/C had stopped completely. I parked the car but got very nervous my battery was going dead(shouldn't be the case b/c its only 3 months old) so I left the car on while I ran inside the store. When I came back out all the electronics were off and the car had died. I tried to turn the key and got nothing. The battery was completely drained. Later that night my friend and I went out and tried to jump the car so I could get it home. We both decided that it was probably my alternator and that if we sat and let it charge that I should be fine to get home. It charged for 10-15 minutes and started right up. I drove it home the 20 miles with the exterior lights on and all was well. I got up this morning and all is well?!?!? I didn’t try the radio/AC though, because I want to be able to drive it to where ever I need to get the part/mechanic to fix it.

Is this a case of my battery being completly fine and my alternator being bad.

Or am I missing something else here?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Jason

 
Rep Power: 297

If it is an older Civic then yes your alt is gone. Also check the alt fuse. It might have blown.

If its a newer civic when the alt goes out the spedo stops working as well. That is a clear sign.


Oh and did your Bat light ever come on?

 
Rep Power: 0

It is an 04 civic with 105k miles.

A few new discoveries.

REALLY SORRY!!! I completely forgot to mention the battery light. The battery light did come on but went back off when I hit the gas???? Makes me think the regulator is working.

The spedo is working fine.

I checked the voltage accross the battery while the car was running.
-As soon as I turned the car on it was reading 11.8V.
-I let it idle for a little and hit the gas a few times and then it read 12.7V. That's making ground but I believe the next paragraph should explain things


Big Find
I found a bad/no connection. Some how one of the connections to the alternator has rusted/broke off. It is still making contact but barely. It is a terrible rusty connection. This is what I shall fix tonight and then I will run and test the battery once more.

 
Rep Power: 308

Cool find, thanks for posting what you found.