OT: help with some civic issues

2.2TDI

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Hi everyone, once again I need some help with my civic and I always found this forum the most helpful.

This may seem a little stupid of me, but yesterday after I work I decided to give my engine a wash... Car is a 2005 civic si 2 door coupe. I used grim remover and then a pressure washer, but I made sure to keep the hose as far away so it wouldn't be spraying with excessive pressure around hoses, connectors and sensors. Once done I proceeded to drying with a pneumatic air vac under high pressure also. After I cleaned the exterior and dried parts of the car with the same air vac, as well as some of the interior. I have done the exterior and interior of the car before with the air vac and never had any issues, but yesterday was the first time i washed the engine. Needless to say, my airbag light is now on, but it's not always on, as it will go off at random times and come back on, but there isn't a specific pattern of when it goes on and off. The abs and parking brake light on the other hand seem to only go on once I start moving, and then anytime I go below 30kph-20kph the lights will go off and stay off until I start moving. I also had my radio turn off 10-20 seconds later after I start my car, and then it wouldn't turn back on, or it would turn back on and then shut off again. The last time I drove my car the radio didn't go off at all though. So far i've checked almost all the sensors in the engine bay and there wasn't any water in any of the connectors, I also checked the fuses and they're all good. Today my DRL light also started coming on intermittently and going off. So where do I start looking from here?

PS: Yes it probably wasn't the greatest idea to power wash and air dry a 12 year old civic engine bay but please try to refrain from telling me you shouldn't have... and you are... etc
 

imo000

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Cambridge
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2009 M-B ML320 Diesel & '05 Passat TDI Manual 5-Speed
Have you had the airbag recall done on the car yet? There is also a simple way to reset the light too. Look it up on Youtube. Had a project car (03 Civic that I had to resent the airbag light)
 

2.2TDI

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Have you had the airbag recall done on the car yet? There is also a simple way to reset the light too. Look it up on Youtube. Had a project car (03 Civic that I had to resent the airbag light)
Yes airbag recall was done long ago and I did try the reset method but the thing is the airbag light goes on and then off at random times. I also noticed my radio goes off when I start driving, but then when I turn my fan on for heat or ac, and the actual rad fan kicks in, the radio turns on :confused:. I work at a honda dealership so when I go to work this week I'll hook up our HDS tool to see what codes might be stored but I wanted to see if I can resolve this outside of work
 

2.2TDI

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So something interesting happened today. I. Decided to drive a little bit with the abs fuses unplugged. After replugging them, the abs light was still on, but when signalling, the abs light would flash on and off. The abs would flash off when the signal would flash on and vice versa, and at one point the abs light just went out and didn't come back on. After I left school tonight, the abs light reappeared, but the same story with the signalling was happening. Also, when I put my wipers on the highest setting, the lights would turn off and stay off, same thing if I put my high beam on, the abs light would turn off...

Also, my radio doesn't turn off anymore after I start driving, the last 100km the radio has stayed on
 

imo000

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Location
Cambridge
TDI
2009 M-B ML320 Diesel & '05 Passat TDI Manual 5-Speed
Check and clean all the ground contacts in the engine bay.
If this car has a body control module, check then ground wire near it too. Could also the module be failing and causing all this.
Has this car been in a flood?
 

2.2TDI

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Check and clean all the ground contacts in the engine bay.
If this car has a body control module, check then ground wire near it too. Could also the module be failing and causing all this.
Has this car been in a flood?
no floods that I know off, at least not since I have owned the car. Just a quick engine wash last week like I mentioned in my first post.

The dtc came back as abs low voltage. The tech told me to air dry and heat dry so I air dried the abs connector some more at work, i then blow dried the connector and pins with low heat and the only result I got was the abs and parking brake light flashing, only to become solid after 20 seconds of driving and stay solid (on). Tech says if drying doesn't work I need a new abs module, but if I replace the module, would that also make the radio stay on and the srs light turn off? Clearly the abs and radio have to be on the same circuit if the radio turns back on and abs light goes off when I turn the ac on, but i don't know about the srs light
 

2.2TDI

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Sell it and buy a TDI. Problem solved. :)
Id love a tdi, but I had too many headaches with mine, and most were not self induced like this scenerio, so I'll pass for now

On the subject of the civic I found some info on a different forum about someone who has a similar issue and mentioned it was an alternator/over voltage issues. I monitored my voltage with my Bluetooth obd and it's around 16.8 when driving, and when coming to stop its around the normal value of 14. When I turn on the ac, wipers, hazards, high beams, etc I get the abs light to turn off and the airbag light aswell sometimes, which makes complete sense since more load will drop the voltage. So I guess I need a new alternator?
 

2.2TDI

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Indeed it was the alternator. Replaced it today and everything is back to normal. I probably should have covered the alternator when washing the engine bay, although this is the first time for me after washing an engine where the alternator was affected afterwards... probably since it's the original one with 210,000 km on it
 
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