kraneous

Hey, so I'm having a weird issue with my 93 FD. I just bought it a couple weeks ago and found that it had a pretty good crack in the rad. I replced it (i think it was stock) with a koyo. After the replacement the car ran fine at first but after about 10 minutes I was stopping at a red light and the charge light, abs light, and the 2 lights above the temp and pressure guages all came on. At first I thought it might be because of a loose battery terminal clamp that has been causing me problems (sometimes I have to wiggle it a little to get the car to turn over). I wiggled it and tightened it and the lights went off so I went for a drive (about 30mins). When I started the car again the lights all came on again...dam. I managed to get it home but by the end the stereo wouldn't work, the wipers were slow, the windows were slow and I felt a slight rocking at red lights. So I replaced the terminal clamp with a new one and had to boost it to get it started. I ran it with the jumper cables for a few minutes and the warning lights went out. So I removed to cables but the lights came right back on. The only thing I can think is that either the new rad takes more juice than the original or something got bumped in the install. Any advice would be very very much appreciated

TerryD

Check the charging system? Is the alternator charging the battery?

kraneous

I'm pretty sure the alternator isn't charging the battery because my electrical stuff slowly started shutting down as I drove, then after I turned the car off the battery didn't even have enough juice to start it again.

rxmiles

iTrader: (11)

You have you're answer. The alternator or voltage regulator are bad.

scotty R

iTrader: (13)

if you take a multi metre to your battery when your car is running and the battery is loosing power consistently then its your alternator, happened to my buddies civic a couple weeks ago . i replaced the alternator and battery and car have been running fine since

kraneous

Yeah, I just thought it was weird that it was only after I replaced my radiator. What are the odds that the problem just happened to appear at the exact same time. I was hoping maybe someone would have a simple fix like "you probably knocked x wire loose" or something.

gerald m

Fix your battery clamps before you do anything . Might not be the problem but it sure doesn't help to leave them dirty or loose . check all electrical feeds for corrosion and clean . If the battery clamps won't SNUG up nice replace them ( molded cables are much better than the old bolt on ones .. Won't cost much and should be done anyway . Alternators don't like charging when there is no where for the charge to go .

thinkingrotary

i had a 95 eclipse that had the same thing all i did was cleaned the terminals off and it worked fine ....

kraneous

That's what it ended up being. When I took the ground off of the alternator so I could rip it out and take it in for testing I saw it had a lot of corrosion/build up on it. I cleaned it with a steel brush and it seems to be working fine now. Thanks for the help all!