I’ve been having some issues with the electronics on my (b16) 92 da.
The issues i’m having: When I apply my brakes all my lights dim. I’ll apply the brakes and my radio will shut off and my headlights will go off for a second and them come back on, but will be very dim until I release the brakes. The other night it got so bad that when I hit the brakes my whole car shut off for a second and then when I released the brakes it started up again. When I’m sitting at stop lights I can’t have the brakes on or else all my lights come close to shutting off and my idle drops to about 200 rpm. The weird thing is this doesn’t happen every night. It’s a random thing that will go away for a few days and then just start acting up again.
The other issue i’m having is : After i’ve been driving for a while, my idle will start acting weird and move up to about 1200 and then drop down to about 700. It doesn’t seem like a vacuum leak cause i’ve had that issue before and the idle would bounce up and down quite quickly and repeatedly. This is acting different. It will go up to 1200 and then hold there for a few seconds and then slowly return back down. It does this every 15 seconds or so. The weird thing with this is when I release the brake peddle the idle stops acting like that and stays right at 900 where I have it set. I’m not sure if the two issues are connected in any way, but it sort of seems like it to me.
The things I’ve checked : I hooked a volt meter to my battery when the car was on, all my lights, and my radio were on. The meter read 14.40V and when I applied the brakes it only dropped down to about 13V. I also hooked the volt meter to my alternator when the car was running with all the lights on and it read 14V. With the brakes applied it dropped to about 12.3V. I don’t think it’s my alt but I could be wrong. Now my battery is relocated to the trunk, but it’s been that way for awhile now and I haven’t had these issues until a few weeks ago. I checked all my grounds and they’re all tight and corrosion free.
I’m not sure what else to do or check. I know that was really long, and thank you to anyone who took the time to read it. Any ideas guys? Thanks
(Next time the issue with the lights starts acting up I’ll try and get a video of what it’s doing)
You say you checked the grounds but have you removed the battery teminals and sanded them? I had the same issue. When I would apply the brakes my lights would dim and my radio would shut off for a second. I took the negative terminal off the battery and sanded the inside and made sure it was all clean of corrosion and it has worked fine since.
Yes I did that yesterday. It’s tough to say if anything has really fixed the problem because it’s not an everyday issue. It just randomly happens. I will have to wait and see I guess. Right now I just want to get my idle issue fixed
If it’s not that then i have no idea. It sounds like a ground issue. Mine would start to happen after about 15 minutes of driving. I never had idle issues though. Electrical issues are the worst.
Alternator? Voltage Regulator? Battery?
charging system have your alternator and battery tested asap beefore it dies on you while your driving