My girlfriend's Fit started having trouble keeping the battery charged and ultimately may have a broken alternator but I have reservations. Here is the sequence of events:

1. She would need to get jumped after leaving the radio on for about 3 minutes after maybe 15 minutes of driving.
2. She started having minor electrical failures - the dome light stopped working, the backlight for the gear shift, and the map lights. But all the fuses were good. This was not intermittent but just suddenly happened.
3. Yesterday, when she started the car and turned on the headlights, it started to stutter and died. I'm assuming the alternator gave up at this point.
4. After jumping it, the battery showed a decreasing voltage until it died again as various systems including the gauge cluster shut down.
5. After jumping it a second time and leaving the cables on so it ran off of my system, she showed a voltage of 13.2. All the accessories were working at this point except for the aforementioned domelight, map light, and gear shift backlight.
6. But even though the majority of the accessories were functioning while the jumper cables were running from my car and it was showing a 13.2 V the gauge cluster was still totally dead. This was not an existing problem before the alternator died.

My fear is that if I put a new alternator in, the gauge cluster will still not function, and all the minor electrical problems have snowballed into some circumstance that blows out alternators. Then whatever new alternator I buy will ultimately fail.

So is the alternator failure a symptom or a cause? And should I go through the trouble of replacing the alternator or send it straight to the shop?

 

You sure it's not a bad battery? She could have a dead cell.

Did you check the under hood fuses/relays as well as the ones inside? The jumps could have nuked one of the under hood relays.

 

Didn't check the relays but did check all the fuses for continuity. Under the hood and dash. I'm not sure how to check relays but I will google it now. Do you know if there is a specific relay for the gauge cluster or the ECM? The open circuit voltage with the car not running was 12.2 so not a dead cell.

 

Before you buy any parts, I recommend putting a known working battery in place of the factory one. I've seen weird stuff happen in modern cars with a weak or dead cell battery. Including low voltage readings.

Fuse position 14 under hood and fuse positions 3 & 4 in dash are related to gauge cluster functions.

I do highly recommend fully exploring the battery possibility before replacing the alternator though. How many miles are on the car?

 

Don't overlook a possible ELD malfunction


I saved you the trouble of Googling

How to disable eld? Electronic load detector - Unofficial Honda ...

https://www.fitfreak.net › ... › 2nd Generation (GE 08-13)


Jan 9, 2012 - Hello everyone, I want to know if anyone has had their ELD (electronic load detector) eliminated or disabled. If you have please let me know what is.This FLICKER needs to STOP!! (2007 woes) - Unofficial Honda ...
Jan 21, 2013

Has anyone tryied bypassing ELD a must see it might change ...
Oct 23, 2011

More results from www.fitfreak.net

 

Took the alternator out and it tested good! The battery tested bad. Put a new battery in, still no gauges, and 12.3 v at the terminals after starting. This is killing me. What are the chances that both the battery and the ELD went bad?!

All the fuses are good. That was the first thing I checked.

 

Not surprised about the battery or alternator.

I suspect that the jumps nuked something. I'd say it's a good chance that the ELD or a relay/fuse got nuked.

Did you double check the fuses I mentioned above?

 

I just checked continuity between the alternator and the battery and it was good. I double checked those fuses.

This circuit diagram http://hondafitjazz.com/manual3/en/i...0000EAAD01.PNG makes me think it may be the ECM?

Low voltage narrows down to either the ELD or the ECM. The lack of gauges makes me think ECM. But I have no idea where the bad battery comes in. Also wouldn't the fuses at the battery keep the jumping from toasting anything?

 

GAFIT,

I checked those fuses initially for a gauge light with my multimeter without taking them out. The charging issues where still happening at this point. They had continuity so I thought I was all good. But the gauge lights still weren't working and I still was having charging issues, so I pulled the fuse to look at it.

Then I proceeded to put it back in the wrong slot. A dead slot not connecting to anything. Fuck my life.

After counting the number of fuses in the diagram I realized. That paired with the bad battery caused me to think zebras when I heard clip clopping.

After replacing the battery and putting the fuse in the correct spot, we are all good. I chalked up the gauge light to a bad bulb and called it a day.

 

Glad you got it resolved and thanks for posting a resolution!