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I was driving to work this morning (dark so headlights were on) and the battery light came on, then a few seconds later the ABS light came on. I thought uh-oh, not good. Then all of the gauges dropped to 0 (tach, speedo, fuel, temp) and the radio clicked off. I drove the remaining 5 miles to work fine like this but of course a bit worried. The transmission seemed to be shifting a bit odd also, like it was searching and had lost its programming although I can't be sure about this since I was a bit on edge.

I went out a few minutes ago to look things over and started it up and all seems back to normal. I replaced the alternator a month ago when I did the timing belt/water pump and all belts seem fine. Also had the head gasket replaced by a guy known to do great work on Civics just 2 weeks ago. Very odd set of symptoms to me but I see others have similar symptoms on here, but not the exact same ones.

Any thoughts?

 
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i'm guessing you bough a cheap aftermarket replacement alternator instead of an oem honda one

 
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Well I don't call $120 cheap but yes it is aftermarket from Advance Auto. Wondering if they or I can test it to see if it is bad? Problem is the problem seems to be intermittent.

Thanks for the reply

 
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yep that will most likely be your problem

depends do you have a voltmeter/multimeter and know how to use it?
check voltage across the battery with the car off and with the car running when it's acting up

 
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Well I figured out how to get it to act up. When idling all I have to do is turn on the headlights and the blower and the gauges drop to 0. Odd thing is the battery light doesn't come on any more, just the ABS light. I have a volt meter so I will try testing at the battery.

Thanks

 
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Ok, I tested across the battery when its not running and get 12.00 volts. When it is running and not acting up I get 9.49 volts. When it is running and acting up I get 8.60 volts. I'm leaning towards something with the alternator. I don't think it would act like this with a bad ground?

 
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If the alternator was successfully charging with the engine running you should see something in the neighborhood of 14 volts.

 
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Fail, should be about 12.5v car off and over 14v when running. time for a new alternator.

this

so return the junk aftermarket one and either buy a new one from honda or get a used one from a junkyard

 
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Sad thing is the only reason I replaced the original was that the positive terminal bolt snapped inside the housing when removing the alternator to replace the timing belt. The plastic piece snapped that was supposed to hold the inside locking nut and that let the full torque be applied to the bolt. It wasn't even corroded or overly tight. Nothing wrong with it just no way that I know of to replace that bolt. They took that as a core when I bought the replacement.

Anyway, thanks for everyone's help. I appreciate it.

 
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How did you get the top timing belt cover out from under the valve cover? Not that knowing that would help me now...lol

 
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probably just loosened the valve cover bolts enough to slide the timing cover out

 
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Ya, I undo valve cover bolts and lift it just far enough to pry the upper cover out past the lip

 
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damn.. this thread scares me now. i replaced my genuine honda alternator just over a year ago for the exact same reason.. the old one was fine but i snapped the bolt when changing the timing belt/water pump haha. fml. the new one is aftermarket but it's been fine so far. i do have a pretty power hungry 750W RMS amp for my sub, so im worried this crappy alt will die super fast. how long do aftermarket alts usually last?

 
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Just until it doesn't work.




On the same level: How long is a stick?

 
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lmao ah ok, i thought they were at least rated for X amount of kilometers or something.