I hate DSMs! Electrical Problems. [Merged 2-9]

[NJGSX96]

Well the other day I went out and bought a new alternator and battery for my 1G. Of course the bolt for the alternator was in backwards and couldn't come out without removing the turbo/manifold/O2/exhaust, but thanks to my friend Phil and his Sawzall, that was a minor issue. Anyway, when I went to the parts store, they had a 75AMP and 65AMP. The 75AMP is for automatics, but was identical to the 65AMP, which was for manuals, so I went with the 75AMPer. Why not, right? Get it installed, everything plugged in, clean up the battery connections, install the new battery, fire it up, all good. This was Monday. Tonight after work I go back to the car and figure I'll add some goodies I got for my b-day while the car is down. About an hour later I have installed my nice new cockpit adjustable hallman MBC and I swap out my plug wires for the NGK wires I had on before since my Magnecors bit the dust... again. That is it. I do nothing else. Plug up the laptop, start the car, fire up TMO, log battery. 5 seconds into starting the car I hear a high pitched occillating whine and with it the lights are dimming and brightning. TMO battery log looks like I am logging O2 dipping to 11v and rising to 14.5v over and over. Finally steadies at 13.9v and the whine becomes constant, whih is coming from the alternator. I let it idle for 10 minutes. All looks good. I got out for a little test drive and as soon as I get to the bottom of my hill the log shows 12v and i can see the lights dim! Every time I come to a stop it dips to 11v and the dash lights for battery, coolant come on, then go off. I get back home as quick as I can, and park it. At this point the lights are all dim and the log shows 11.6v.

Is this for real? Is my alternator already f#cked up? In all my years of driving I have NEVER had to replace an alternator. is this common for them to die or come bad out of the box? Is the 75AMP not compatible with my car? Where the f#ck do I start to check now or is it just the alternator?

 

[5spdFTW]

the temp gauge has decided to work regularly now. i seill dont have lights tho.... i really need to take a look behind the radio.

 

[kylush]

Ok, so I picked up my 91 Talon TSI, AWD yesterday. Five speed, fun as hell compared to my 3g, too bad i couldn't get to actually have fun in it, just drive home in a snowstorm, but appreciated the awd.

Anyhow, heres some stuff that kinda sucks about long car drives in the snow with this car. The wipers don't work, well actually they do, you just can't turn them off. You plug the motor in and you can change the speed of em, but not turn em back off, only way they'll go off is when you turn off the car or unhook the wiper motor.

Another thing is that the radio doesn't work, it turns on and everything, but you turn it all the way up and you can just barely hear it.

Lastly, no rear defrosters, i'm assuming the button for them is just the button on the dash there and you just push it, but i push it and nothing happens, doesn't work at all.

Any ideas on how to fix this shit? cause it sucks in the winter and on long drives

 

[kylush]

Also just for the record I've searched extensively and not found any answers to these specific problems, i've found people having other problems with the same systems/parts, but nothing quite like this....

 

[wibblersnatch]

For the rear defrost I would check the relay. It's above the fuse box inside the car. It's pretty big.Probably black or blue. And I think it's the one in the middle.

Is that a factory radio? If it is then its probably a bad head unit. Replace it.

For the wipers I would try a different switch.

 

[kylush]

Yup factory radio, was planning on replacing with an aftermarket one, but if it does the same thing i'll be pissed!

What do you use to check the relay, just like a multimeter or something?

 

[fmalucard]

hello, my car just recently broke down... it's a 97 eclipse rs

it used to die on me when i would put it on neutral and it woudnt idle right the times i was able to come to a complete stop without it dying on me. for some reason i changed the terminals to the battery and it didnt die for a while.

a while ago it would just die randomly on me while on gear, and it would take a while for it to turn on.

just recently it went crazy. i never knew my car had an alarm... i had to disconnect the battery to it because it would keep honking and all the lights (dash, front, back) would just keep blinking and the car wont turn over, it wont even make a noise, like if the battery is dead...

what is the problem here? honestly my car is an rs and i had no idea it had an alarm... is it even an alarm?? the car would give out a little honk whenever i would turn it off but i didnt think that was an alarm because i have no trigger for it.

can anyone shed some light here? any help is appreciated.

 

[kergilman]

what is the problem here? honestly my car is an rs and i had no idea it had an alarm... is it even an alarm?? the car would give out a little honk whenever i would turn it off but i didnt think that was an alarm because i have no trigger for it.

can anyone shed some light here? any help is appreciated.

It sounds as if you either have an aftermarket alarm installed or your RS came with the keyless remote entry system (which is the same as the factory alarm). It sounds like somthing is triggering the ignition kill relay. I would dig up under the dash to identify if there is an aftermarket control unit installed under there and inspect the condition of the wiring (possibly bare wires needed to be wrapped in electrical tape that might be shorting to chassi causing the relay to latch).

 

[fmalucard]

well i looked under the dash and low and behold i found this black box under the steering wheel.

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it says "k9-5 atv" on it, and once i unplugged it all the car will actually try to turn on, but it never did... it's a step up because it stopped honking and the engine actually made a noise... what could still be the problem? any idea as to what this thing is?

thanks

 

[kergilman]

it says "k9-5 atv" on it, and once i unplugged it all the car will actually try to turn on, but it never did... it's a step up because it stopped honking and the engine actually made a noise... what could still be the problem? any idea as to what this thing is?

thanks

Well I found what most likely will be the users manual for what you found there.

LINK

It looks like you have 2 options:

Try to get the thing functioning correctly after choosing one of the 1000's of websites selling remotes for @ $30-$60.

-OR-

Remove the unit and and it's wiring which would include correcting the way it is spliced into your ignition wires.

 

[fmalucard]

thanks for that manual... i was able to put the alarm on "valet mode" and it seems to be disarmed... now i need to find out why the car won't start.

it just won't turn over, and after a few tries of trying to turn it on, the battery dies...

if i disconnect the negative terminal it seems to recharge on it's own. what could be causing this? now that the alarm is disarmed, do i look for a mechanic?

 

[kergilman]

I'm not sure what you are saying. The engine will turn over when you turn the key but just won't catch and strat running...? Is it just doing this in valet mode or is this how it acted before when it was dying on you...? I'm asking because if the ignition kill relay was causing the problem, the car would act like it has no battery connection when you try to start it and not just turn over and over and over...

 

[fmalucard]

the alarm has been disabled... i managed to find the "valet" mode button and the car is "acting" like it used to before when it worked. the car acts like there is a battery connection when i try to start it. a friend is telling me it might be the ignition coil.

 

[kergilman]

Figure out where they tapped that ignition coil line and remove it...that might fix your issue.

 

[Oblivion02]

Hey guys,

I recently got my Eclipse GS- Turbo... Its running great, everything is fine... But sometimes, the car starts very smoothly... Other times, it starts rough, and/or takes a while to start... Once I honked the horn, and the radio turned off... Sometimes the radio does not work... It randomly stops working, then randomly begins working again. When I hit the brakes, the SEATBELT LIGHT goes on. Today it turned on a little ligh that looks like it has a cage.

Attached is the image. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to solve all these electrical problems, I would greatly apreciate it. Thanks for all your help!

-Oblivion

 

[gotclutch20]

check over your ecu wiring harness see if theres any shorts in the wiring,check your ecu too it could be going bad. Um alternator could be going goofy on you does any of your gauges bounce when this happens? the cage light means low fluid for your coolant

 

[RoasT BeeF]

The "cage" light you see is actually a picture of a radiator - which indicates you are low on anti freeze. If you look in the overflow tank you will find it empty because thats where the sensor is. So fill it to the line and keep an eye on it.

As for the rest it sounds like theres a possibility of some shorts, or a weak charging system. Start with the basics and get the battery checked. You can use a volt meter to check your alternator's output. It should be between 13-14v at idle.

 

[Oblivion02]

The Cage = The Radiator... I get it now!

It makes sense because the car was heating up a bit during the weak... I'll have the hoses checked, and fill it up again...

ANother electrical problem is that when I turn the A/C up to the highest speed... It turns the radio off (randomly... SOmetimes it happens, other times it doesnt).

Yesterday it was very hot, I turned it up to the max, A/C shut off.... Stopped sending air. Not sure whats going on... But its driving me craaaazy!

 

[RoasT BeeF]

Again, check your charging system. If the alternator can not keep up under heavy load (like running a/c on full blast) other electronics will fail - like your radio shutting off.

 

[Oblivion02]

Going to try swapping the alternator 2morow... [HOPEFULLY]. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for the help!

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

...also a good idea would be to inspect your chassis grounds. Check them from the battery to the firewall, intake to the firewall, and the tranny to the passenger's subframe (all are factory ground point locations).

Replace any that have a lot of corrosion and make sure that the mounting points themselves are corrosion free before installing new grounds.

 

[Oblivion02]

Could someone please link to a diagram showing where the factory ground points are? I'm very new to "cars"... I'm mainly a computer geek.

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

general stuff for future reference:

Virtual Tour of the DSM Engine Bay - Quadrant map

Ground specific:

http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/1G/groundstrap.htm

(Although this diagram only shows 2 grounds, the missing 3rd ground point is not visible until you remove the intake and MAS)

 

[luv2rallye]

I agree with Boosted - check your grounds. Especially on the radio. When doing something over here causes something wierd to happen over there, it's usually bad grounds.

 

[Oblivion02]

Will do that today.

Thanks guys! I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[Oblivion02]

I checked one of the grounds, (the battery one), and it seems fine. The Coolant Reserve was missing Coolant, but no big deal... Adding a bit of coolant turned off the cage light...

And about the A/C.... Its a fuse... Its burnt. It actually MELTED in the fusebox. I'll start another thread later to see how I can fix this.