Replaced more... it's starting to run better!

ECU, Wiring, Sensors
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Replaced more... it's starting to run better!

By teal_dx
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:43 pm #10112 Last night, I started my car for the first time in a year and a half :woot:
It ran pretty rough for the first 1-2 min, then leveled out and stayed about 1500 rpm. There's a CEL and a loud ass hiss coming from the intake filter, I'm sure it's not a vac leak. It keeps dying before I can check the code.
But there is a problem... It will only run for a few mins then it gets sluggish, the battery light on the dash flickers, and then the car dies.
The battery was dead. This happened 2x in a row.

I have a couple ideas on what the problem could be, here's my setup:

Image
on top is the stock setup. the bottom one is mine.

Theory 1:
The stock setup has the battery & fuse box side by side, which helps to charge the battery. Mine is far away in the front corner of the bumper. Maybe too far for the battery to get charged? Then I think of when people put their battery in the trunk, it would be the same situation and lots of people relocate to the trunk. So I don't think that having the battery so far away is the problem.

Theory 2:
Bad alternator? It is the same one I had on my old motor when I stopped driving the car. It worked fine the last time the car ran 1.5 yrs ago. Can an alternator go bad just from sitting?

Theory 3:
Bad battery? I bought this battery a little over a year ago. it is 275 Cranking Amps / 230 Cold Cranking Amps. (remember I have no power accessories, AC, heat, wipers, locks, windows, etc) The battery sat since I bought it, but worked perfect when I hooked it up a week ago. Since then I used it to test the lighting, fuel pump, and even used it to crank the motor some before it started (maybe 30 secs of total cranking) After the cranking, I noticed that it seemed like it started to die (as most batteries would after that), cranking was getting difficult for it. That was all last week and then it sat for 5 days. Last night it was too dead to turn the starter so I hooked up jumper cables to my other civic and it worked. Then I took off the cables and it died in a few mins. I jumped it again and it started up, but then died less than 1 min after I took off the cables.

I'm leaning toward #2 or #3. What do you all think :?
Last edited by teal_dx on Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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By ChicagoMike
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:46 pm #10113 Sound like the battery to me. Have you had it sitting on concrete at anytime???
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By teal_dx
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:58 pm #10115
AddictiveAllMotor wrote:Sound like the battery to me. Have you had it sitting on concrete at anytime???


yeah, for the entire time :lol:
What does concrete do to batteries :?
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By civicnation93
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 2:00 pm #10116 Definitely sounds like the alternator man...when i first had to replace the headgasket on my stock d15...the car sat about 7-8 months and when i cranked it up to move it to my father-in-laws garage a horrible squealing came out from the alternator..it had seized up, kaput...fried...cut the belt and drove it on the battery to his house...had to buy a new alternator...same problem fekin battery kept dying on me so wtf right? I was an idiot...forgot to hook up a tiny little wire that keeps the battery charged...my best guess would be to take ur alternator in and have it checked...if no good then u know the problem...I dont see what the distance of ur battery would matter so eliminate that...

Hope this helps
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By teal_dx
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:04 pm #10130 I would have been 100% sure it was the alternator, but it isn't making any noise and it spins freely. Plus it worked fine before... maybe I'll take it to Autozone and have them test it.

I'm still curious about the battery though...
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By ChicagoMike
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:37 pm #10131 Having a battery on concrete will drain it. I always pop mine on wood whenever its out of the car.
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By teal_dx
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:41 pm #10132 Damn, I never knew that :headscratch:

It still had plenty of juice after I put it in though, I'm just wondering if the lower CA's could have anything to do with the battery not getting charged enough? I'm hoping not, since I don't want to have to buy a larger battery and make a new battery tray.
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By ChicagoMike
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:46 pm #10133 Might be a dumb question, but, hows the ground on the battery? Did you just put it to the frame?? If you did, did you take off the paint and go down to bare metal??
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By civicnation93
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:50 pm #10134 I was thinking about somethin lol...if it was the alternator and not the battery..it shouldve been somewhat fully charged...and im pretty sure it wouldve lasted longer than 2 min running straight off the battery...well depending on how much audio equip you were running as well...maybe try...gettng the alternator tested regardless and or/ takin a battery from one of ur other cars and try that...anything is worth a shot especially if it narrows down the possibilities ya know?
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By york62
- Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:53 pm #10165
AddictiveAllMotor wrote:Having a battery on concrete will drain it. I always pop mine on wood whenever its out of the car.


x2 i always do that too.
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By teal_dx
- Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:55 pm #10289 Last night I took the alternator & battery to Autozone. The alternator was Good so I bought a bigger battery. That seems to have fixed the battery dying problem.
And the Check engine light was giving me a code 19 - Automatic transmission lockup control valve.
It's nothing engine or emissions related so that's a plus, but the cause could be that my P28 is an auto, the guy I bought it from said it was a manual :x
Also, the car runs like complete shit!
It barely idles, the tach says 0 rpm at idle. If I give it a little gas, say 800 RPM, it stalls.
Fuel pressure is 42 psi, battery chassis, thermostat, and transmission grounds are good.
Every time I check the plugs, they're covered in soot. I clean them off with a wire brush and put them back in, but the exact same thing happens again.
I'm beginning to wonder if I have ignition issues... the external coil came with the motor, who knows how old it is :?
The only problem is the Dizzy is re-wired for that coil, so I'm going to have to buy or borrow another z6 Dizzy to test with....

One question... the other day when I had the bad battery, but had the jumper cables going to another running vehicle, my hatch was idling perfectly smooth @ 1500 RPM.

The only thing different is a better battery... I don't know why it's running like shit now. Once the plugs have soot on them, are they ruined? Maybe cleaning them off isnt good enough :?
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By ChicagoMike
- Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:42 pm #10299 Are you on stock injectors??

That auto P28 is totally killing you too!!
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By teal_dx
- Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:50 pm #10307 I'm not 100% sure it's an auto P28, but that's one of the most common reasons for the code 19 is auto ecu in a manual car.

I'm going to check the #'s on it, I read that if the next to last digit is a 5, then it's an auto.

The injectors are stock.

Something's not adding up because it ran smooth the other day in the exact same condition that it is in right now, with the exception of a bad battery. :?

So I don't think the Auto ECU (if mine is indeed an auto) would cause it to run so bad, since it was running fine the other day with the same ecu. Could the plugs be the problem once they have soot on them, even after wiping it off?
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By ChicagoMike
- Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:59 pm #10309 Plugs can be the problem. I've burnt out plugs within minutes when we do tunes from scratch.
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By chnzgoofball
- Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:11 pm #10310
AddictiveAllMotor wrote:Plugs can be the problem. I've burnt out plugs within minutes when we do tunes from scratch.


X2 i was thinking the same thing
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