eu4ik

car: 92 prelude si, automatic trans w/ 280K miles, new jdm h23 motor. the problem existed before the new motor.

a little background: saturday night i took a drive about 45 minutes away, mostly highway driving. 5 minutes into the drive with my headlights on, the speedo starts jumping around and the battery light was flickering on and off. when i'd let off the gas a little, the speedo would engage.. but another 25 minutes into the drive, the tach began to do the same. shortly thereafter i came to a stop sign, then took off again. the transmission wouldnt shift out of 1st, so i pulled over, turned the car off and tried to restart.
the engine would turn over, but i could tell the battery was pretty drained. the headlights were very dim, along with the interior lights and windows were rolling up very slowly. i got a jump and the car did fine after that.

so we got a load tester. with the car off, the battery has nearly 12 volts going through it. we started pulling fuses, and nothing changed the drain on the batt. pulled all the fuses to the amps, head unit and xm receiver which yielded no change in the battery drain.

we pulled the lightbulb out of the trunk, and the drain dropped to about 5 (cant remember exactly but it was around 4-6).. then it slowly raised back up to 12! so we touched the negative cable to the terminal, and i looked around in the trunk for any lights that may have been comin on. i didnt see any light, but i hear a distinct "click" noise, similar to what the main relay sounds like when i turn my key to the on position (it's all i know of to reference). we also disconnected the antenna, but still no change.

my question - is there some kinda relay or switch in the trunk?


thanks for the help

__________________
from the age of uniformity,
from the age of solitude,
from the age of Big Brother,
from the age of doublethink—greetings!

v8vanisher

The only switch that is in your trunk goes to the latch to turn the trunk light on when the trunk is opened. The click your hearing when you turn the key on is the fuel pump turning on. I would make sure everything in the car is turned off. Then disconnect your battery ground and clip a test light between the ground wire and the terminal. If the light comes on theirs a short. Take out the fuses in the underhood fuse box one by one starting with the 100 amp fuse until it goes away. Sounds to me like your alternator is grounding out internally.

indylude18

Sounds to me like you may have a bad alternator. After the car was jump started, how long did it continue to run before it died again?

eu4ik

it never actually died while it was on, when it wouldn't shift outta first after I came to a stop I turned it off n tried to start it back up- it took a jump to get it goin. all of that happened at night w my headlights on. when I tried to start it of course I turned everythin off.

we'll prob go test it tomorrow at oreillys.

yesterday I drove it about an hour n a half during the day, then for about 10 min later that night w the headlights on- it was at 85% after that.

__________________
from the age of uniformity,
from the age of solitude,
from the age of Big Brother,
from the age of doublethink—greetings!

eu4ik

oh, and I didn't think the clicking in the trunk was my fuel pump because I didn't hear it actually turn on. it's kinda loud, walbro 255. I haven't heard it since then tho. who knows.

thanks for the responses, it's appreciated.

__________________
from the age of uniformity,
from the age of solitude,
from the age of Big Brother,
from the age of doublethink—greetings!

eu4ik

forgot to mention, we pulled the power to the alt and the drain was the same. checking ignition switch next. in the meantime i'm pulling my neg cable every time i park the car for an extended period of time.


im almost getting tired of the car.. never thought i'd say that.

__________________
from the age of uniformity,
from the age of solitude,
from the age of Big Brother,
from the age of doublethink—greetings!

doh22a4c

I'm just curious, but how exactly did you load test the system? I only ask because generally you test parasitic draw in Amps (milliamps, specifically). Any circuit tested to ground will generate 12volts (or thereabouts), regardless if it's actually drawing any power.