93 EX Cutting out W/Clicking & Battery Light

[Slimgoaty]

Hey guys, looking for suggestions here. 93 EX 5spd with 291K Original.

Headed to an appointment the other day, I had just got on the free way and got up to speed (70Mph, 2800ish RPM) when suddenly there was what I can only describe as the motor cutting out. It was much more than just a single cylinder missing. It did it for a fraction of a second and then started doing it more and more as I was driving. I noticed that the battery light flickered every time it cut out, and it never cut out for more than a quarter of a second, just little blips, but sometimes it would do it multiple times back to back. When it would cut out, battery light flicker, I could also hear a relay ratcheting at my feet. Another symptom to throw at you guys is that during this time the tach would move erratically +/- 250 RPM, but this was not actually happening, as the car was staying steady at 70 MPH.

Not sure if I fixed my own problem but after I got to my appointment and before I headed home I got down in the kicked panel and made sure all my relays were seated, not of them felt excessively loose or out. That said, the same distance and speed home the car didn't have any issues.

[NTYPE]

Im thinking its a bad ground/loose wire or loose relay like you said.
If it werent for the battery light flashing up I'd go for ignition problems but to me it sounds like electrical, the tacho will be jumping because power to the dash is being cycled on/off which is consistent with a loose wire.

Open the hood, check all the wiring and ground connections in your bay. Check the battery connections, check the alternator wiring and plug, and have a look up under the dash and passengers side kick panel and just make sure everything is tight and looking how it should be.

Also it may be the EFI main relay is playing up, but I'm not too sure if that would have the same symptoms. If you have a spare or just for peace of mind grab another one and throw it in. good luck

[Jeepzor]

Thanks for the help, I'll do as was suggested and get back with the results.

[Jeepzor]

Here's a little video I took when it happened the other day. Probably hard to tell but every time the battery light flickered the car felt like it was cutting out on me. Drove to town yesterday and didn't have any issues, drove Into town this morning and it did the same thing as the video shows. But only one way of my trip. I don't think it's a loose wire, but I'm leaning towards some bad contacts or something somewhere. Checked connections at the alternator, and battery. Both seemed to be OK.

http://youtu.be/ZJn7usa9twk

[Kev1990]

I would say test your alternator and see what voltage readings your getting, check your grounds and check for correct tension on alternator belt. I had this same problem when my alternator was not only failing but a loose belt. While your checking the voltage rev it up to that level and see what the alternator reads. I'd say a soon to be bad alternator.

[Jeepzor]

Took another video this morning, had my first chance to really poke around. The main relay is definitely opening and closing causing the clicking, I can feel it with my finger on the relay itself. I checked voltage as its doing it and I can't really too much of a voltage drop. It went from 14.4 to about 13.9 but the RPM's also dropped from 1500 to 1000 or so as it was warming up.

https://youtu.be/BeusbHUIi3E

about 5-10 minutes later, just fine.

https://youtu.be/w08xbTfv34w

One last tasty bit of information is that as I was headed home the other night, every time it did it the headlights would slightly flicker. The radio and everything stayed playing and none of my accessories would turn off or anything, but the battery light would flicker on, engine would cut out, main relay would open up and then everything would carry on as normal. Did that for about 5-10 minutes and cleared up the rest of the way home.

[Jeepzor]

Haha, just realized I have two different User names on this forum, not sure how that happened? Anyways, Jeepzor and SlimGoaty are the same person.

[oni_cb7]

My car was doing this to me a few weeks ago. It was a bad ground connection. Check all of your grounds, these cars act funny even with the smallest ground connection issue. It has to be perfect for these cars.

[Jeepzor]

When you say a bad ground connection, do you mean at the battery or at the alternator? Other than that what are some grounding points I should be checking. Tried doing a search but I couldn't find a diagram. Looks as if there is one mounted to the thermostat as well.

[Jeepzor]

Checked all the ground connections I could find under the hood, everything looked ok. I loosened them and cleaned them up and re-tightened. Still doing it. What pulls in the main relay?

[Jeepzor]

So I found out what its probably not. Its probably not anything to do with the alternator. I unplugged that green 4 pin connector and the wire on the stud on the side (12VDC +?) and started it up and ran it from a cold start. Same exact thing. No difference. Starts and idles fan around 1500 rpms when cold, give it a little gas and between 2000-3000 main relay starts clicking and the thing starts stalling. So I fail to see how it could have anything to do with the alternator when the alternator was taken out of the picture. Strangely instead of the battery light flickering the check engine flickered when the alternator was unplugged and it try stalling.

Oddly enough, started it up and let it run and the battery light never came on. Ran it about 15 minutes with no battery light. After a about 5 minutes of running it I shut it off and started it back up and it ran perfectly fine. No stalling or anything.