Hey guys, what's up? I'm new here as you can see. I'm aware that I'm grasping at straws taking my problem here for help. Let me explain why, and please give any related input you think may help. I do not know where to go with this. This thing just suddenly occurred. Nothing led up to it telling me it would soon happen. My car is a 1999 Honda Civic Value Package.

I have an electrical problem under usually good conditions. I put in a new alternator fuse. My battery and my alternator are both tested as good, but I need a jump to start my car every time. When I start it, the battery monitor which is the only thing I turn on shows me my voltage dropping, and in seconds it gets down to 6 volts. Engine sound gets quieter, dash lights are flickering and dimming, and basically it is shutting down on power to the point where I might as well turn the ignition off.

When I turn the key off I am right back at square one. I cannot start it by key alone. I have to jump start it, try again, and same thing happens.

The Honda dealer did not offer me a fix after diagnosis. They told me that my ECM is not communicating with the transmission. Is this significant to my problem?

The tech that worked on my car told me later on off the books that I should get rid of the car. I have done a lot of restoring on it so I don't want to. You know, full tune-up from timing belt to sparks, you name it. Many parts replaced and added as well but nothing electrical except the fog lights which are like OEM and a pair of aftermarket projector headlights with an HID kit installed. This was a good running vehicle with these lights for a long time now, and they remained off during the tests to try to get things running without loss of power.

I understand I am limited to what I can be told is wrong with my car just from what I have told you because there may be a tiny slit on a vital wire which could take either a long time or a lot of work to find, so I am hoping to go through process of elimination knocking out other possibilities first before I give up and get a full blown wire harness rewire job done.

So...thoughts?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I have a few pictures of what looks like connectors. I want to know if someone knows what they are for and if they may fix my problem. They're dangling by my oil filter but I couldn't see any metal pins inside them.
http://i59.tinypic.com/2a95kqa.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/16921yc.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/16lcj94.jpg

 

Using a portable voltmeter, measure voltage at the battery (on the battery posts) with the engine running. It should be more than 13.8 volts. If not, the charging system is not working.

I think those connectors should plug together. Also you want to check the wires where the harness goes over the intake manifold bracket on the back of the engine on its way to the alternator and a few other things. The 1996 to 2000 models had a problem where those wires get frayed and blow the alternator fuse, known as the fuse 15 problem. It is much easier to see from underneath the car.

The battery light on the dash should be on when you turn the key on and don't start, and go out after starting. If it never comes on, the alternator is not powering up.

 

I should of done this first and I am disappointed at honda. I changed my fuses 14 15 16 17 and 31. 31 is the ECM fuse. These were all under-dash. Since I recall honda claiming the ecm was not communicating with the transmission I figured it must of disabled communication with the alternator's components as well. This ECM fuse I suspect allowed my system to remain charged and transmission to stop limp mode.

Lesson learned: Check fuses first.