1995 Honda Civic Something's draining power from my car

CREATIVEDISCO

MEMBER
1995 HONDA CIVIC
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
159,000 MILES

Okay, so I recently bought a brand new battery from Walmart (about a week and a half ago) and then installed a new alternator (about a week ago) in my car. I was driving into Macon when I noticed both my speedometer and tachometer going crazy in my car. When I took my foot off the gas or had it out of gear, they would bounce around back and forth from 0 to whatever it had been reading before. It would do this once or twice, then stop. I kept going and got further into town. Later, I noticed that when I had it out of gear and my foot on the brake, the tach and speedometer would read zero. Then, as soon as I took my foot off the brake, they'd go back to normal. It was about this time that I noticed other things acting strangely. The lights in my dash became dimmer and dimmer, my radio got softer, and my engine idled lower and lower. When we checked the battery, it showed 11.25 volts on it. When we took the alternator to AutoZone (where we got it from), it passed all of their tests. What's going on?

1 Reply

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

Hi creativedisco,

With engine running, test the alternator charging rate between the battery terminals. It should read between 13.5 to 14.5 volts. If it is lower than that, test the voltage bwtween the alternator main post and body ground. If voltage is more than 13.V volts, there is an open between the alternator and battery. Check the main fuses.

If everything test good, run vehicle and when problem starts, repeat above test.

Check the ignition switch, if it is failing, it could lose contact and cause symptoms indicated. This is not draining but rather a charging system fault.