OK so i got a new engine in my car the other day and took it out that night. About 5 minutes into the ride i got a CEL but didnt hear/notice anything. When i went to drive it again it started up with no CEL, but after i started driving i noticed the lights were dim, dash lights were dim radio cut out, but still no CEL or battery light. Since i was nowhere near my house i had to keep driving… then my speedo cut out so i pulled over just so i wasnt stranded on the thruway or nething. had the car towed home ( for free)
i assumed it was my alternator… car ran for a while then power started to drain. I replaced the alternator today and started it up ion my driveway n let it run After about 5 minutes the CEL light came on AGAIN. I turned the car off jumped the ECU harness to get the code… put the car to the ON position and no code shows up. Start the car again… CEL pops up again. I had the car running for like a half hour in my driveway with the head lights on n no problems but the light was staying on
just to be safe i took my old alternator that came off the car to autozone to have them test it incase the engine light wasnt alternator related. Old alternator is still good!!
WTFs wrong with my car?!?!?!
clif notes**
~put in new engine D15…
~Car ran for a while then CEL shows up
~car lights start dimming and losing power ( figured alternator)
~replaced alternator
~start car and a few minutes later CEL shows up
~when attempting to check the code the light doesnt show
~had old alt checked and it was still good
~ car starts up n runs fine in my driveway but i dont want to drive it so i dont get stranded again
i dont think pulling the fuse for the condensor would kill all the A/C related parts. there should be a few more fuses related to the system that would also need to be pulled. if you dont plan on re-connecting the A/C i would strongly recomend removing everything you can from it. if pulling fuses doesnt work, just unplug all the sensors as that should stop them from sending a signal(saying something isnt working) and that should eliminate your CEL. now maybe for shits and giggles did you just try re-connecting your a/c to see if thats whats actually cuasing the problem? on 95accordvtec’s car, it used to always start up with the CEL on as well, then it would go off after a few seconds of running through the systems. turned out to be a bad ABS unit. i dunno if that applys here though
today i put my old alternator back on so i could take the other one back n for shits n giggles i wanted to see if it fixed itself. I let it run for about a half hour in my driveway with no CEL light at all, but i noticed when i turned on my headlights i heard some sort of very faint noise that seemed to me like it was electricaly made (a constant tone). Its coming from the drivers side of the vehicle.
I took it for a spin around the block and about 3 miles into my adventure the CEL came back on. I didnt notice anything dimming this time but i got home as soon as i could so i didnt get stranded this time around.
There are NO blown fuese, tranny, valve cover and thermostat grounds are all hooked up. Every time the car is shut off the ECU clears any codes that where previously showing so it’s impossible to read what codes its throwing
Next time as soon as you throw the code be ready to jump the ecu and get the code for me.
I sounds like you have a bad ground with feedback issuses. If you give me the code I can help you more…Im pretty familar with obd1 and obd0 so I might be able to help you out here.