After AC evac and recharge, electrical system is failing
Asked by 4thpage Aug 05, 2016 at 10:21 PM about the 2008 Honda Civic LX
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I had a shop evac and recharge my AC today. About 30 or so minutes of driving
after picking it up, the charge light on the dash came on. Then the radio started
flickering on and off; the air bag, ABS, and a few other lights came on; and the
car started miswing like there wasn't enough spark. Finally, the car died and I
coasted into a parking lot. Has anyone ever had this happen? What could they
have done accidentally while working on the AC?
It's back at the shop now; they said they'd look at it in the morning.
10 Answers
I had a 1995 Honda for almost 20 years, purchased it brand new in 1996, left over fleet car that never sold... I put almost 150,000 miles on that car , had some repairs, but, overall, great car!!! That was the 90s, unfortunately, something went horribly wrong with Honda in the 2000s, and your car was at the nadir of poor quality, see this...... below and as much as I like Honda's generally, I would advise you to get rid of this car..... here's the link, www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Accord/2008/
I see that you have the Civic, sorry, almost as bad,. here's the link for your car, and yes, I would still advise you to sell it... http://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Civic/2008/
As a comparison here's the profile of the 1995 Honda Accord, http://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Accord/1995
Well, I'm not selling it. Any other ideas, anyone?
Yes,your alternator is bad,
Or,they left a wire to it undone.
I'm hoping it's a forgotten wire. It would be an awfully big coincidence if it went into the shop with no indication of an issue, and came back out like this.
Check the battery terminals for loose connections and tighten if loose then check wiring connections from the AC components.
So, the system was overcharged, which had caused the compressor to cycle on and off every 2 to 3 seconds. That apparently killed the 9-year-old alternator. The battery was utterly dead from being forcibly drained as I tried to limp to a safe place to stop. Boo all around.
The battery was over four years old anyway. Oh well.
