Headlights and Interior lights flicker but only during night time.

[karlito626]

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently having a flickering light problem with my 2003 Honda Civic Ex. I was driving one night and noticed that my headlights were flickering so I decided to also turn on the interior light and it was also flickering. After awhile the flickering stopped and never occurred. Originally I thought that my alternator was failing so I decided to go to an auto shop and get it tested today but when I went everything checked out and the employee said that the tester said that my alternator, battery and starter is good. On my ride back home I decided to keep the interior lights on but it never flickered, not even once.

 

I have no clue on what is wrong. Does anyone have any advice?

[Emma Ava]

Hello,

You have to look again at the infamous alternator connector, battery connections, battery cables including the wire to the main fuse/relay box, grounds, etc. This is not going to be fun, but unfortunately that's what I think you are going to have to do. If you hold the engine rpm to let's say a fairly stable 1000 rpm with the throttle, do you still get the lights "flickering" consistently, or is it more of a "dimming" only when the rpm drops to about the 300 rpm and then they "brighten" up when the rpm goes back up to a more normal rpm? Your unstable idle I think is just a function of the ECM trying to relearn all the adaptive stuff, but because of either the intermittent battery power and/or fluctuating voltage, the ECM can't accomplish the relearn. You are aware that the "relearn" may take quite awhile, depending on how you are driving the car. It may take 20 or more miles of varied driving, including a couple of shutdowns and restarts before the idle especially, gets back to normal.

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