Car ?'s

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Noodleface

Noodleface

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Driving home tonight and all of a sudden to my headlights start strobing. Not a light flicker, I looked like a cop car. PEOPLE PULLED OVER TO LET ME BY. it then stopped but my low beams were SUPER LOW and my high beams were barely just ok. Got home, parked, restarted car and they were fine. While the strobe was happening, my battery light was flashing randomly.

I'm guessing alternator, but everything I read about an alternator going is I'd get a light flicker, not a full blown strobe.

Another thing maybe not related. It was very wet today and after work I noticed a lot of heavy condensation on the inside of my front windshield. Enough that I could mop it up and it was dripping. I'm worried some water got into a relay.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Definitely alternator. Just measured the voltage. Cranked over at 12.85 and kept dropping. At around 11.10 I just shut it off. Never had one go while driving like that
 
Denamian

Denamian

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Noodleface said:
Definitely alternator. Just measured the voltage. Cranked over at 12.85 and kept dropping. At around 11.10 I just shut it off. Never had one go while driving like that
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Had my alternator go just 2 weeks ago. My headlights didn't freak out, though they did get dimmer for a second whenever the AC compressor would kick on. Had an idiot light flash so briefly I couldn't tell what it was for a few minutes, then eventually it happened more frequently and it stayed lit long enough to see it was the battery light.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Denamian said:
Had my alternator go just 2 weeks ago. My headlights didn't freak out, though they did get dimmer for a second whenever the AC compressor would kick on. Had an idiot light flash so briefly I couldn't tell what it was for a few minutes, then eventually it happened more frequently and it stayed lit long enough to see it was the battery light.
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It was actually incredibly scary because I was on the highway when they went. I tried everything but they went nutty
 
Denamian

Denamian

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Noodleface said:
It was actually incredibly scary because I was on the highway when they went. I tried everything but they went nutty
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That must have been good times. I used to drive for a living and had an alternator go on the cargo van I was driving about 15 years ago. Managed to drive the nearly 50 miles back to work on battery power in the middle of the night.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Hmm so I replaced the alternator, it was definitely bad. Voltages are back up in the high 13-14 range.

My low beams are still incredibly dim. I don't think replacing them would fix that as I've never had a bulb go dim before burning out. Anything else I should look at?
 
Denamian

Denamian

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Noodleface said:
Hmm so I replaced the alternator, it was definitely bad. Voltages are back up in the high 13-14 range.

My low beams are still incredibly dim. I don't think replacing them would fix that as I've never had a bulb go dim before burning out. Anything else I should look at?
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I'm not a car guy, but maybe there's some corroded wiring? I assume the battery is fine. Depending on the age of the car, years of salt may have done some damage. My car is 13 years old and when my alternator was replaced, they had to replace a bit of wiring that was corroding.
 
Lambourne

Lambourne

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Check battery cables and ground wires, might have a break, loose connection or corrosion buildup somewhere. Strobing lights (going on and off) points in that direction too.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Bad ground is probably the most likely culprit. You could probably measure the voltage at the light to verify it. May not be that easy to locate the problem though.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Replaced both bulbs and that fixed it. I've never heard of bulbs burning out halfway before but I've also never seen lights strobe. The strobing was exclusively because the alternator died. Replaced alternator and bulbs and we're good. Voltage to the lights looks good and voltage at battery is healthy.

Let me tell you how shitty changing the lights on a Civic are though...
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Noodleface said:
Replaced both bulbs and that fixed it. I've never heard of bulbs burning out halfway before but I've also never seen lights strobe. The strobing was exclusively because the alternator died. Replaced alternator and bulbs and we're good. Voltage to the lights looks good and voltage at battery is healthy.

Let me tell you how shitty changing the lights on a Civic are though...
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yea, i had to remove the brake fluid pump to get at my civic lights when i replaced em w/ LEDs, my nimble asian hands could not slip on in.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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I had to pull the wheel well apart for the passenger side. Driver side wasn't as bad but I wasn't thrilled pulling the radiator shit out
 
Denamian

Denamian

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Noodleface said:
Replaced both bulbs and that fixed it. I've never heard of bulbs burning out halfway before but I've also never seen lights strobe. The strobing was exclusively because the alternator died. Replaced alternator and bulbs and we're good. Voltage to the lights looks good and voltage at battery is healthy.

Let me tell you how shitty changing the lights on a Civic are though...
Click to expand...

This first time I changed the headlights on my 05 civic was a massive pain in the ass. The passenger side required that I pull the battery, but the driver side was the real jimmy rustler. I just couldn't figure out how to get enough space between the back of the headlight and the wiper fluid reservoir. This was on a Saturday and my regular mechanic was out of town, so I called around. The only local place that was open mentioned dropping the fucking fender which caused me to nope the fuck out.

I eventually managed to squeeze the bulb in without shattering it or breaking the reservoir. My problem is that I do 80% of my driving at night, so I go through bulbs faster than usual.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Denamian said:
This first time I changed the headlights on my 05 civic was a massive pain in the ass. The passenger side required that I pull the battery, but the driver side was the real jimmy rustler. I just couldn't figure out how to get enough space between the back of the headlight and the wiper fluid reservoir. This was on a Saturday and my regular mechanic was out of town, so I called around. The only local place that was open mentioned dropping the fucking fender which caused me to nope the fuck out.

I eventually managed to squeeze the bulb in without shattering it or breaking the reservoir. My problem is that I do 80% of my driving at night, so I go through bulbs faster than usual.
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i think your 05 and my 02 are about the same, had to remove the power steering(it was this, i was wrong b4) to get to the driver side headlight. but didn't you have that weird ass metal clip to flick to install? i either couldn't figure the metal clip out or mine broke cuz too old on one of em, it's actually held in place but that huge rubber boot (i had to cut a bit out to fit the leds, they have a huge long tube and fan).
 
Denamian

Denamian

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Of course my passenger headlight decided to die last night and I got pulled over about 2 minutes after it happened. Thankfully the cop was nice and didn't even give me a fix it ticket. When I changed the bulbs today, I notice that the passenger side filament is still intact. That worried me, but I held out hope that it it was something else with the bulb that I couldn't see. Unfortunately the light still doesn't work and I lack the expertise and probably to tools to figure this out.

Goddamn the car acting up more frequently after the guy who had done all my car work for 20+ years dies in a motorcycle accident.
 
Fifey

Fifey

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The recent posts in this thread pain me so bad, you are doing the equivalent of this.

usca51107.jpeg
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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If you can tell me a better way of.changing the low beam on a 2010 Civic without going in through the wheel well I'd love to know
 
Fifey

Fifey

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It's been a while but I feel like you can get in there with your hands but it's a pain but usually when I need to change a headlight, I usually pull the bumper to the side, pop the top 4 clips of the grill, loosen the 8mm/phillips screw connecting to the fender and then loosen the wheellliner screws on whatever side and I think theres 2 10mm bolts on the bottom to the core support.

Do that and then the bumper should be loose and pop the side out and pull it back and you should be able to get to the 4 10mm bolts that hold the headlight in. I do think that year has the dumb plastic bracket for the bumper to clip into so it's pretty easy to realign for install.


Edit: Just looked it up and yeah I guess it's just pulling back the wheel liner, that's hardly a process. This is things we would regularly do for freecost of a bulb to anyone who drove in t our shop.
 
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