What the hell is going on with my ride?!

[phishmann]

ok, heres the story. I just bought a 95 prelude si a couple of days ago, it looks sharp and its runnin great until one day i get into my car and go for a little ride. Im driving down the street and all of a sudden the rpms drop to 0. At this point im getting a little worried. Then the lights start going crazy and my car dies. So i figure its the alternator. I take it to the shop(by way of tow truck mind you) and they told me the same thing and they replaced the alternator. So today I get my car back and im all excited that I get to drive it without worrying that its going to shit out on me, but then the same god damn thing happens on my way to the movie theatre the same day that i got it back.

So is it my alternator or what?! Im getting frustrated because i love this car and im having no other problems with it other than a damn electrical problem that i cant seem to find what the source of it is.

PLEASE if you can give me some opinions that would be great so i can get this car stress out of my life.

-Seth

[sofast]

Are you running audio equipment? If you are check all of your connections and all of your inline fuses. Make sure that those fuses are the correct amp. Using oversize fusues are hard on your electrical system.Make sure none of your hot wires are grounding out. Try checking the fuses located under the hood. They should be 30amp fuses. If that doesnt help take it back to the shop or you can E-mail me if you need any help.

[plum]

i dont see how they can mistake another problem for the alternator, my lude had a broken alternator and i knew this cause in the beginning when the battery was dying first my speedometer would start showing the speed hten going to 0 and like jump back and forth then die, afterwards the rpm meter did the same thing and then it just died, after i recharged my battery i tried unplugging it and seeing if the car coudl run on its own and it coudlnt so i concluded it was alternator, maybe you could give that a shot, for the normal cars if you unplug battery it should continue running but im sure you knew that. My friend had a short cause of his old car alarm system on the board, and his batter was just being sapped real quick at night when he wasnt driving and hed have a dead battery when he turned on his car in the morning, but if its a short, your battery should die while your driving

[phishmann]

thanks for the opinions guys

sofast: Ya i checked the fuses under the hood and they looked fine, the car used to have a big system in it but the guy who had that took it out.

Plum: Ya thats exactly what happened to me(the speedometer going crazy and such) and i thought it was the alternator too, but i just dont understand why after putting a new alternator in the car it does the same thing that same day it was installed.

Im starting to think ive got a little bigger problem than just a faulty alternator.

[km23honda]

Just a thought did you use the same battery on the new alternator. Because i would think that it might be the battery. Because the new alternator can not charge an old batter that is completly dead. BUT NOT SURE IAM NOT GOOD IN ELECTCAL PROBLEMS. Maybe just bring it back to the place and get you money back. i don't know

[plum]

well if his battery were dead then he wouldnt even be able to start his car up, but yea maybe km is right your battery might be old and just have trouble holding the charge, but maybe its the system, because for a nice sound system he proly ran the wires straight from the battery to the amp in the back then back up front to your cd receiver with the rca cables, maybe you can check those and see if that is the problem.

[atrain598]

Originally Posted by plum

i dont see how they can mistake another problem for the alternator, my lude had a broken alternator and i knew this cause in the beginning when the battery was dying first my speedometer would start showing the speed hten going to 0 and like jump back and forth then die, afterwards the rpm meter did the same thing and then it just died, after i recharged my battery i tried unplugging it and seeing if the car coudl run on its own and it coudlnt so i concluded it was alternator, maybe you could give that a shot, for the normal cars if you unplug battery it should continue running but im sure you knew that. My friend had a short cause of his old car alarm system on the board, and his batter was just being sapped real quick at night when he wasnt driving and hed have a dead battery when he turned on his car in the morning, but if its a short, your battery should die while your driving

that happened to my car. i would come out in the morning and my windows would be down and my battery would be dead. my alarm could roll down the window or roll them up when armed. iwas afraid to leave my car outside so i had to detach the battery overnight to prevent it from happening. i didnt know all of this though until my buddy told me. because i took it to a honda dealer and they told me it was my power window motor and that it was going out and that i should buy a new one. my buddy installed alarms and he just cut the brain out and extra wirerings and the problem was fixed. so just check if there is an old alarm system hooked up? This reply was probably just some rambling but thats what happened to me.