00 AccordEX Dashboard Lights Stay on, Engine Whining

A bunch of things have been happening over the course of the last few weeks with my Accord. First, about 3-4 weeks ago, I hydroplaned and hit a telephone pole @~10mph, and just pushed in the front bumper a bit. I'm working on getting the bumper replaced, and eventually the hood cuz the corner is bent in a bit.

I'm not sure if that relates to the problem, so I'm putting it in there. Anyways, I noticed about 2 weeks ago at a stoplight the lights would dim/flicker. I know that's possibly an alternator, but it went away. Then, it did it again a bit last night.

My main concern is today after starting the car, all five open-door/trunk indicator lights stayed on, as did the Brake Light indicator, and the Battery light. Also, there is a slight whirring/whining noise at idle and noticeable up until about 2 000 RPM, when it just sort of goes away. It made this whirring for a day or two after the accident (I first noticed it then, anyway), and stopped.

Also, at one point it told me my oil pressure was low and the engine temp started rising, and took two quarts of oil and I haven't had a problem...the odd thing is that there was never an oil drip puddle under the car (I got the oil the same day)

I have no clue what's causing this slew of problems and don't want to spend much money if possible fixing things. The light thing just went on today around 12 when I left for lunch. The only difference between then and when I went to work this morning, is that it was raining out.

It took you TWO quarts of oil!!! How did you do it? Did you just pour it untill the lights come off? Or did you add oil up to the level on the dip stick? Two quarts is a lot of oil. You could damage your engine. But to me it sounds like the problem wiht oil is unrelated to the warning lights.
Check out the output of the alternator. If I remember it right it should be around 14.7 volts when running. Other guys will corret me if I am wrong. Considering you had an accident, I would check out all the connectors and harnesses.
Good luck on fixing that, and keep us posted,

Sam

I checked the Dipstick. I think I may have been slightly over or under the full-mark. Yeah, I'll look into it ASAP. Is it critical, though? A co-worker said it could be a short-circuit somewhere as well.

Are there any particular spots I should look for stuff in? The damage is in the front driver's side, right where the headlight is (although the light isn't damaged). If I can get away with letting this sit a bit I'd like to just because of money constraints.

I'm debating just getting rid of the thing and getting an 02 or 03 focus SVT because it seems like this car is giving me all kinds of crap as soon as I get it. Pulled over after a week and a half, then hydroplane less than a week later, and now all this. Other than that I've had one speeding ticket and a total with my last car, and have a clean record. It's like this car wants to kill me.

That might be your bad luck. The Higher authority knows better.
I do know that Honda is a good, reliable car. Even if it has been neglected in the past. I have a good example on this: my son's 95 Accord.
If I were you I would try to fix it. Alternator is not a big deal (even with limited mechanical skills). If you ran it with low oil level, it is bad, but once again: this is Honda!
So the choice is yours ......

Sam

I've seen Hondas go with less oil than that, and be fine...one customer (young girl) would come in for oil changes, every time less than 2 quarts came OUT of it...and looked like asphalt.

She would say things like "The oil light's been on since Tuesday, but since I had the appointment to get it changed, I ignored it." Airhead.

Try torquing up the motor against the e-brake in forward and reverse with the hood up, see if you have any alarming engine movement that might be binding a pulley or something...maybe that torque strut behind the motor broke when you wrecked or something...

Yeah, I'm having my friend run a voltage check on it hopefully today, and we'll see how that helps. Could one of the bearings on the alternator be causing that whining noise

I've had one speeding ticket Well you can hardly blame that on the car or bad luck! :) (nor the hydroplaning - that is a mathematical certainty given enough water, enough speed, and - possibly - little tire tread.)

Regarding the door and brake warning lights: This is no help, really, but I had that happen a while ago and posted a question here. The only responses I got were that I might have a loose ground somewhere (which when you are talking about inside the dash doesn't really get me - or you - any closer). Eventually I gave up and left it that way (and, FYI, THAT car ended up being totaled!)

Well you can hardly blame that on the car or bad luck! :) (nor the hydroplaning - that is a mathematical certainty given enough water, enough speed, and - possibly - little tire tread.)

Regarding the door and brake warning lights: This is no help, really, but I had that happen a while ago and posted a question here. The only responses I got were that I might have a loose ground somewhere (which when you are talking about inside the dash doesn't really get me - or you - any closer). Eventually I gave up and left it that way (and, FYI, THAT car ended up being totaled!)


Yeah, I ran a voltmeter an hour or two ago. Oddly enough, when I started the car it acted perfectly normal. The voltage is 10.9v though, and went to ~8 when I started. There's a dead cell on the battery, too. So I'm gonna hook it up to a charger tonight.

My friend told me if it doesn't charge, it's the battery, alternator or both, but if the battery does charge, it's the alternator.

I think it'd be the alternator given the noise and symptoms...but then that wouldn't explain why it did it over basically exactly 24 hours lol, but then again what would make something happen for only a day and it could be a loose wire or something.

It was wet out, though....it's a stretch but maybe the rain did something until it all dried out?

I had the alternator replaced today. On the way home from work a few hours of posting my last message, the car stalled out on me and had to be towed. Guess that answered my question REAL fast. Now the stereo doesn't work, and the lights still do the dim/flicker thing at stops@idle. Any ideas what that would be, if not the alternator? Perhaps the battery? It has a bad cell and I'll be replacing it soon.

Regarding the stereo, maybe a deck fuse was blown? The clock, lighter, and radio are all on thesame fuse, so clearly that fuse is intact...right?

My plan for tomorrow is as-follows:

UPDATE:
Fuse was blown on my Pioneer deck. I'm waiting for a new fuse right now, 10A to pop it in.

If that fails, I'm popping in my stock deck

If that works, I'll go buy a new deck.

If neither work...is my car audio f%$#ed?