Electrical Issue (Long Description)

[Alexi3rdgen]

Hey,

I'm trying to fix my Accord before I sell it, and it has some weird stuff happening to it. For awhile, my temperature gauge was behaving erratically, but never actually overheating. Well, one day it did. So I pulled the car over to the side of the road, and my father brought a cooler with water to put into the radiator. Well, instead of using the little spout on the side to fill the radiator as I requested, he dumped it all over the front part of the engine. I didn't notice at the time, but when I restarted my car, the emergency flashers that were on, were no longer on. I just noticed that I didn't have turn signals. Well, as I drove down the road, I realized that the flasher switch was still engaged. I flipped it off, hit my turn signal, and it flashed once, and then the tach, fuel gauge, temperature gauge and the turn signals all died. When I slowed down, the lights would get really dim, and the radio would cut out. After I shut the car off, the next time I got in, the shift lock wouldn't disengage without manually overriding it with the key.

Well, fast forward two months. I hadn't had time to tinker with the car, and so I went finally to check the fuses. Well, the cooling fan fuse had blown, so when the car was shut off, the relay started clicking until I unplugged it for awhile. Well, A few other fuses had blown as well, and I replaced them all, and all of the gauges worked again, and I was able to shift. When operating the electrical accessories, it still dimmed the lights and made the radio cut out, but that was probably because the battery was still really low from sitting for so long. I took it for a five mile drive or so, and I parked, and then I went to shift out of Park again, and when I tried to push in the lockout button, it wouldn't disengage the shift lock again, and the radio would cut out when the button was pushed. (Car is still running at this point) Any ideas of what else to check? Alternator? Ground from somewhere? It's really bizarre, and I'd like to have it operating in peak condition before I sell it. I'm going to be putting the money into my '83 Volvo, and it's going to need quite a bit. Sometime in the future, I'll get another 3rd gen Accord, but for now, it just needs too much body work to justify restoration.

Wes

[Blkblurr]

I would check and clean all the ground connections in the engine area..Did any of these problems occur before the dumping of water into the engine bay? Are you sure it was water?

[Ichiban]

Sounds like your alternator is pooched. Try all the basic voltage checks, including load testing with accessories on and off, and a voltage drop test between the alternator and battery. Check voltage at the battery with the car off, then start it and check again. With the engine running and the alternator functioning properly, you should see 13.5-14 volts at the battery, closer to 12.7 with the engine off.

[bank2me]

Sounds like your alternator is pooched. Try all the basic voltage checks, including load testing with accessories on and off, and a voltage drop test between the alternator and battery. Check voltage at the battery with the car off, then start it and check again. With the engine running and the alternator functioning properly, you should see 13.5-14 volts at the battery, closer to 12.7 with the engine off.

x2 Take it to autozone or somewhere where they can test your alternator.