Helping a friend with a 2001 Civic EX stick.

Car won't start clicks at first then nothing. Check battery voltage and it is below 12V - charge battery to 12.5V. Battery less than 1 year old and load tests fine. Insert battery attempt to start - just clicking. Interior lights dim headlights almost nonexistent. Battery voltage low again. While cranking voltage drops to 4V!

Try jumping with another car. Lights instantly go dim when key turned - just clicking.

Think starter is shorted. Pull starter have bench tested and fails. Charge battery. Replace starter. Turn ignition to on position (not even starting) and all lights are very dim. Still no start.

Alternator was replaced 1 year ago with reman autozone unit. Disconnect leads from alternator and lights go back to normal and car starts fine. Can a bad alternator cause a huge load when the car is not running? You think it is the alternator? Could it be something else like the wiring/ignition switch?

I pulled the alternator and we will have it tested today. I heard reman alternators for these cars are really bad - could it cause these symptoms?

 

Were you measuring 4 volts-- at the lead posts that are part of the battery, or at the terminals that are part of the car? Bad connection between the post and terminal is very common. To remedy that, take terminal off and scrape clean both the post and the inside of the terminal. Then loosen the nut considerably and push the terminal all the way on (it should be almost touching the top of the battery, with some post sticking out the top) and tighten the nut.

If you only get 4 volts at the battery itself, it is run down or faulty no matter what some other test claims.

There is a main fuse between the battery and alternator. If the alternator had a major short, the fuse would just blow (which cuts power to the whole car). I really think the problem is a bad connection in one of the major power and ground cables, or faulty battery. Batteries can have broken internal connections so they work sometimes but not others.

 

I was checking the 4 volts on the lead posts. All connections are clean and tight.

I have checked the resistance of positive post to the positive fuseblock/starter/ and alternator wires. No resistance - wires appear good. Negative post to engine block shows no resistance.

When the alternator leads were removed there was a huge difference in all electrical performance with the same battery. With the alternator attached the power of the headlights /dash lights/door chime were almost nonexistent.

With the alternator disconnected everything works as normal (even without turning the key to start).

The whole thing is really weird. I have worked on cars for a long time and have never seen anything like this happen.

 

If the battery is good and lose juice that quick? I think you should see smoke coming out from somewhere or at least feel the big time heat.

 

Alternator bench tested fine but has some bearing noise. Getting different one anyways. Will test battery and see what happens. Could this be the fuse 15 alternator wire issue? If the battery gets pulled down so much when the alternator is plugged in why would a fuse or wire not be toast? Could it be ignition or pcm related?