Hey guys, I am new to the forum. I pretty much made this because I am at my wit's end with my car. I own a 1998 Honda Civic HX with 151,000 miles on it and a ton of problems and quirks. This is the first and only car I have ever owned and I have had it for 4.5 years. I do almost all the work on it myself, however I have very, very little mechanical experience.

Current Issues:

1. The past two times that I went to turn my car on, it sounded and felt different when turning over. The best way I can describe it is congested. I drove it to work this morning and went to turn it on again during lunch and it wouldn't start. Battery tester showed 0V and when hooked to a small battery charger for 5 hours it would not go past 6V. I jumped my car and bought a new battery and had it installed (my last battery was installed 12/7/09 by the previous owner). After installing this new battery, the headlights no longer work. High beams and parking lights are fine, just no regular headlights. Not sure why the headlights aren't working but is it safe to assume this is a fuse or that the charger burnt the bulbs out?


2. The battery indicator light is slightly illuminated. You can see it clearly during the night, but during the day you have to squint. It has been like this for almost three years and my shop hasn't given a reason why other than that the alternator may be bad. The alternator was replaced 1/10/10 by the previous owner so I doubted this was at fault. However, around the same time the indicator lights came on, the alternator belt began to squeal when coasting or idling. During these times the battery light grew brighter. The shop tightened the belts to fix the problem but the indicator light remains the same. Any ideas?

3. The SRS indicator light is usually illuminated. This one baffles me. I heard a similar belt squealing but this happened while I was accelerating (different than when the alternator belt would squeal). After this first time this happened (about two weeks ago) the SRS light came on. It remains on while driving and usually when in park. It turns off when I am in drive and at a stop light or sometimes at low speeds and rpm. I also noticed after the belts squealed that there is a sulfurous smell. I assume these are not linked but since they happened around the same time I figured I would mention it. This all happened a two weeks before my battery problems stated in #1.

4. Of course the wonderful Check Engine Light. I forget the codes but I remember one was for the Exhaust Gas Re-circulation Flow (I think P0401 or something like that) and another pertaining to the idle air control (this was pending and didn't come back right away). I know the easy fixes for these but just wanted them on record in case they influence any of the above issues.

Edit:
5. There's a #5... When I turn, there is a scraping sound from the front right tire area (the one replace by the shop in this past March). I am guessing a dust shield problem? Is it ok to just bend this backward? Also if it is a loose axle, what size socket does that require?

A note on repairs:
7/7/15 New Battery
6/25/15 New oil drain plug
4/3/15 Spark plug wires
3/21/15 Oil change and spark plugs
3/10/15 CV axel, exhaust patch, belts tightened (SHOP)
1/10/10 Alternator
12/7/09 Battery

I know this is a huge list of problems so I really appreciate anyone taking the time to go through it. Any suggestions, recommendations, or diagnoses would be welcome.

Thanks!

 

Another thing I noticed. My Bluetooth OBDII connected to my phone reads 18.2 V on the battery when driving. Is this an alternator issue?

Update:
Ok, I am working this out now and finding some connections. First, I am doubting the EGR is related to my electrical problem.

Second, I drove with my OBDII streaming live data to my phone and noticed something useful. The SRS light is coming on whenever my battery voltage is measured at greater than 14V. Since it is operating between 17.3-18.3V at normal speeds this is why the SRS light is activating. This also explains why my previous battery had popped off the plastic caps and drained most of the water. I was ignoring the SRS light for two weeks and the whole time my battery was being blasted with excess voltage.

I am still unsure how the belt squealing connects to this issue but I am still sure that the belt and the light are somehow link since they started at the exact same time...

 

And then I find this:
Source: Luis from 2002 Civic - SRS warning light | Page 2 | South Bay Riders

So my question is then, what caused the regulator to go bad? This was a re-manufactured alternator that was installed 5 years and 44k miles ago. Shouldn't it last longer? Is there some sort of stressor that would have caused the regulator to go bad? I just bought a battery for $120 and am looking at alternators that will be an additional $100 or so and would prefer not to purchase a new alternator just to have the regulator in that part go bad due to some unsolved issue...