For all you guys rolling 1996 through 2000, or later, Honda vehicles I want to warn you about a little thing called ELD. For the US Domestic Market our lovely tree hugging eco-weenies seemed to think it was a great idea to integrate an Electrical Load Detector that senses the vehicle's demand from the fuse box and adjust the alternator's output voltage accordingly.
What does this mean for you as a Honda owner? Well, when the ELD kicks in, I measured voltage as low as 12.3 down from 14.5 to 14.7 volts with the fusebox under a light load. Also, it didn't take me long to **** a Kinetik HC1400 dry by playing loud for an extended period of time:verymad:
Here is the kicker, since most of us wire our sound systems directly to the battery, the ECU NEVER knows what load is being placed from that side of the system since it only detects draw through the factory fuse box. A 170 AMP high output alternator was rendered useless after about 15 minutes of driving when the ELD circuit essentially shut it off to "save fuel". Trust me, at 12.3 volts, you aren't charging jack!
There are ways around the ELD in the older Hondas provided you can find someone to re-program your ECU to ignore the ELD. If you have the P2P ECU, you are SOL
I also thought about trying to trick my ELD into thinking there was a load on the electrical system through the fusebox, but correct technical data on the ELD circuit itself is hard to find.
What does this mean for you as a Honda owner? Well, when the ELD kicks in, I measured voltage as low as 12.3 down from 14.5 to 14.7 volts with the fusebox under a light load. Also, it didn't take me long to **** a Kinetik HC1400 dry by playing loud for an extended period of time:verymad:
Here is the kicker, since most of us wire our sound systems directly to the battery, the ECU NEVER knows what load is being placed from that side of the system since it only detects draw through the factory fuse box. A 170 AMP high output alternator was rendered useless after about 15 minutes of driving when the ELD circuit essentially shut it off to "save fuel". Trust me, at 12.3 volts, you aren't charging jack!
There are ways around the ELD in the older Hondas provided you can find someone to re-program your ECU to ignore the ELD. If you have the P2P ECU, you are SOL
