A Bizarre Issue

[Confuciusdragon]

About 6ish months ago, my car started having an issue with the electronics in it - and I do mean that as an all around statement. The cabin fan won't work unless it's set to 3 or higher, the passenger window stopped working, and... most annoying of all - my entire stereo shuts off periodically. It will never shut off when my car is in accessory, and usually only shuts off during periods of acceleration; however, the latter is more of a loose guideline than a set-in-stone law.

No fuses are blown as far as I can tell (including the fuse in the main power line under the hood). I am using a capacitor, a 4 channel amp, head unit, single sub, and aftermarket front component speakers. This system was working for about 5-10 years beforehand, and no new components were installed when this began happening.

When the system shuts down there are a few things that always seem to happen: my headlights get brighter, the cabin fan gets stronger, and my dashboard gets brighter as well. If I am idling when the issue occurs, the engine sounds like it goes into a higher revolution (this occurs just before the power cuts off). Usually the lights will get brighter slightly before it cuts out as well.

This being a manual car, I have been able to experiment a lot with ways to try to keep it on, as such... if it dies, and I press the clutch down to neutral-state, it will usually come back on within a few seconds of doing so, and often turn back off after I release the clutch. It used to get better if I used it at a high volume level, now it seems to have the opposite effect.

I have checked the wiring to the head unit and found nothing. I have a recently replaced alternator (about 1 year ago), but my battery is pretty old. My capacitor is also very old - and my amp is too. I have postulated that it is probably the capacitor, but I'm not certain.

Anyone have any ideas?

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[quackhead 10+ year member]

I do know this is not funny, but hopefully you have a sense of humor...I would suggest upgrading from the pavement up.

seriously, discharging the capacitor and removing it would be my first suggestion.

 

[Confuciusdragon]

I understand your sentiments there, and it has been something I've considered many times. However, I just don't have the funds for such an expense.

In any case, my alternator died on me today, so I am anticipating that that is the cause of all my problems. I assume that I was given a rebuilt alternator that was cheap instead of a quality item (I was not responsible for this repair, so I don't know the exact details). I am going to search this site to see if I can figure out what sort of alternator I should get as a replacement (while I attempt to adhere to my price range), but if anyone is able to give me input on the subject I'd greatly appreciate it.

As I've said, I'm driving a 97 Honda Civic EX 2 door with a manual transmission - I know some of that is irrelevant, but /shrug.

I believe the total amps that my system is using currently is around 800W RMS, but it should be getting upgraded to around 2400W RMS in the relatively near future. What sort of amp rating should I be looking at to supply this system?

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

bad grounds bad alt bad batt

 

[brooklynjoy2008 10+ year member]

Well there are plenty of people running that much off a stock. Get the biggest u can afford.

 

[Confuciusdragon]

70 amps is looking like the biggest I can grab from any alternator seller (and I believe I was using a 30 amp alternator before from the sound of things >

And my ground is fine, I'm positive of that. I would have experienced some sort of popping noise at some point in the past decade that this setup has gone through. Though I do get a bit of a high frequency whirring noise, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I'm running straight cables in almost everything (I'm slowly upgrading to twisted, but I'm not as mechanically minded as I'd like to be for the task )

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

HONDA CIVIC ALTERNATOR 1996 1997 1998 1999 HIGH Amp EXCEPT SI MODEL HIGH OUTPUT | eBay

 

---------- Post added at 06:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:12 PM ----------

 

NEW HONDA CIVIC SI ONLY HD ALTERNATOR 1999 2000 130 HIGH AMP 1.6L | eBay

 

---------- Post added at 06:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------

 

winnnnerrr

HONDA CIVIC ALTERNATOR 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 EXCEPT SI MODEL 130 HIGH AMP | eBay

 

---------- Post added at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------

 

Honda Civic 130 Amp Alternator 1996-2000 | eBay

 

[Confuciusdragon]

Should I be skeptical of remanufactured alternators in general?

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Sounds like the alternator.

Hondas use a variable voltage regulator that kicks the alternator on and off depending on load. It sounds like the alternator is getting overloaded. You might also have a bad ground to the engine or frame. A bad ground can cause all kinds of electrical issues that cause multiple problems. It can also make components burn out like you are describing.

Start by checking, cleaning and re-installing the major ground points to the engine, chassis, and battery. Once the "free" items have been checked, then I would start throwing the $$$ items at it such as alternator and battery. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Jaguar 10+ year member]

When the system shuts down there are a few things that always seem to happen: my headlights get brighter, the cabin fan gets stronger, and my dashboard gets brighter as well. If I am idling when the issue occurs, the engine sounds like it goes into a higher revolution (this occurs just before the power cuts off). Usually the lights will get brighter slightly before it cuts out as well.

I don't mean to make light of this either, but what's happening to your car reminds me of what happened to the car in Stephen Kings novel

''Christine''. Someone here is bound to help you pinpoint the problem by process of elimination and deduction. Good luck.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like the alternator.
Hondas use a variable voltage regulator that kicks the alternator on and off depending on load. It sounds like the alternator is getting overloaded. You might also have a bad ground to the engine or frame. A bad ground can cause all kinds of electrical issues that cause multiple problems. It can also make components burn out like you are describing.

Start by checking, cleaning and re-installing the major ground points to the engine, chassis, and battery. Once the "free" items have been checked, then I would start throwing the $$$ items at it such as alternator and battery. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

This is very much what I'm thinking. Alternator not regulating properly. Possibly due to bad/old connection, possibly just a part failing. I would suggest if your alternator was behaving badly you may have damaged your battery and it would be well worth having it load tested before you hook it up to a new alternator.

Most high output alternators are basically remanufactured...just with better and more robust parts than OEM. They're as good as the person who builds them, many will be as good as or better than OEM, some will be defective from the factory, though I'm sure a percentage of OEM ones will be DOA or prone to random early failure as well.