I have a 2003 Civic EX. For a while every now and again I would find my car dead from low charge (at least I thought). I would have to push start it to get it going. Every now and again I would be driving and all of a sudden everything electrical would switch off and on for a split second. The gauge needles would fall, lights turned off, radio off, but it would flip back on almost instantly. So I thought the battery was going and I replaced it a month or two ago. I thought everything was fine until a few days ago. I found my Civic dead once again and it wouldn't even push start. I had to get a jump from someone else and I was on my way home. While on my way home, I found that everything electrical was really sensitive. When I turned on my lights, the engine studdered. I had to turn off my lights, wipers, raidio, and heater to keep the car from losing electricity. If I turned the wiper on just once to clear the rain the engine would studder from lack of voltage. On my way home the car died while it at a red. I had to get it towed home. Now at home. The car wont start even with a jump. It cranks but it just doesn't ignite.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on? What steps or tools do I need to diagnose it? Any help is much appreciated.

 

Antonio97b: Welcome to the forum, hope we might be able to assist you. check to see if all your ground connections are good, then check to see if all your firewall plugs are secured snug. Sounds a bit like electrical. Also check when all pwr off that the battery has approx 12 volts. Check the battery volts with an ohm meter to see if you get approx 13v with the engine running. check this site out www.d-a-p.com/askus.htm email me if you need more info, and what is your car milage.

 

It seems like it could be your alternator. Take it out and get it tested like at autozone. If not, rent an OBDII tool and a Haynes repair manual. Hook it up to your car and read thevoltage on it and compare the spec to the manual.

 

I took it to autozone to test the altranator. They say it is functioning. He said to clean the connectors. I doubt that is the problem because they are not that dirty. I think he was saying that because they were loose to begin with because I didn't bother tightening them down before I drove. I have to unplug it everywhere I go otherwise the car wont start after about 20 minutes. What else could be wrong with it. The car has 53k miles on it

 

Have you tried the site I gave to you, also start looking for any light bulb that is burnt out, this may draw power from the batt and weaken it. Check all electrical switches that may draw power to shut them off. check all fuses to besure they are good. Do as blueinteg suggested to get a manual and obd II to check the car out.

 

The site you gave me is not valid. I'll check it out an OBDII reader and a manual soon.

 

Sorry, corrected site. Now it will work.

 

Do you have any aftermarket devices connected to your car? Like an alarm or amps?

You really need to test your battery voltage when the car is off and when the car is running.

If your voltages is not above 12.6V at rest and above 13.0V at running then you need to have your alternator or battery load tested to ensure they are working properly.

Your symptoms really point to a battery/charging system failure if you have to shut all your devices off to keep the car running.

The last thing you can do is test for a defective device that is drawing way too many amps or a parasitic draw which is draining your battery even when the car is off. You will need a multimete with a amp meter built in to perform this test.

You will have to get a amp meter that ios capable of reading up to 10 or 20 amps otherwise you will blow your meter up or blow the fuse in the meter. It needs to be wired in series with the positive battery cable.

If you see excessive amperage draws, then start removing fuses until the amp draw is reduced to less than 0.5 amps. If you kow the fuse that cause it, this will allow you to pinpoint the circuit in which the excessive amp draw is located on.

Please post your results and good luck

 

I am having the same problem with my car. I changed the battery, starter and alternator and it is still happening. Also changed out ground wire. Also the green key lite flashes and my red lite over radio keeps blinking. Please help

 

So what's going on now?Have fixed the problems?