| RonH |
Howdy all ... been MIA for a while, and unfortunately it’s taken a misbehaving X to bring me back.
Well, the X turned 4000 miles old a few weeks ago (we travel in the Ody a lot) and during a day long series of errands I noticed something odd. First, I must say that it’s possible this has been going on since day one and I just haven’t noticed it. While leaving a store, I glanced down for whatever reason and looked at the seatbelt idiot light as I was starting to buckle up and noticed it seemed to go dim, and then bright again. Oddly enough, I’ve seen the idiot lights in our Odyssey do the whole dim/bright thing while driving around, so I didn’t give it much initial thought. However a few miles on it started nagging me. So I hit the VSA button to turn on the disabled idiot light as it’s easier to see than the gear indicator, and sure enough, dim and bright it went. Next I turned on the dome lights to see if they acted up as well, and to my surprise, they did. If I had to guess, I’d have to say it reduces brightness by maybe 25% or so.
I headed for a quiet road, started doing a little testing, and it just got more and more strange. It seems directly related to the throttle .. if I have my foot on the gas AT ALL, things dim a little … release to idle, it goes back to bright. I can make it dance like a disco light by tapping on the pedal. It isn't a variable brightness; it's a very specific dim or bright .. nothing in between.
Now to make it even more strange … if I turn on anything electrical EXCEPT the radio or dome lights, everything goes back to full brightness and stays until the electrical load is removed … examples are parking lights, headlights, windows, A/C, etc … when something like that is on, no type of throttle input makes it dim. This is why I may have never noticed it before ... the temperature is finally in an area where I can drive with the A/C off.
Since I read about all the hassles with the factory battery, I went ahead and replaced it with an Optima .. no change. The only two (electrical) aftermarket things I have installed in the X that are tied directly to the battery are XD HIDS and an amp for the sub. I removed the main + leads on both to see if it was a short in one of them ... again, no change. It’s almost as if the alternator/voltage regulator is turning down the juice since there isn’t a load on the system, but I’ve never seen anything like it before. I mentioned the Odyssey doing this same think, and haven’t taken the time to specifically see of the dome lights (etc) dim as well, but I have a strange feeling they don’t … I would think I would have checked by now … and I don’t seems to think it’s tied to the throttle … it seems more random. I’ve also thought about hooking something to the electrical system to monitor voltage since the X doesn’t have a gauge and see what readings I get when it dims, but haven’t tried it yet.
Just wanted to float this across the group before hauling it to the dealer. I know when I do, I’ll have to hassle with the fact that I have the new battery and two aftermarket items tied to the battery. *sigh*
Sorry if the whole thing doesn't make any sense, it's hard to describe without seeing it.
Thanks!! |
|
|
| RonH |
FWIW to anyone intrested ... today I took the Ody out and tested what I said above about the lights going dim and bright like the X. It seems it does exactly what the X is .. and I noticed, like the X, it's not just the dash lights ... it must be system wide .. as I can notice the dome lights doing the same thing if I leave them on.
Guess this leaves two possibilities:
1) Either I just have the right type of luck to get two vehicles, with three years in age difference between them, that have the exact same problem
...or...
2) I'm, once again, being over-observant and just getting worked up over nothing.
I'm thinking of leaning to the latter. So, once I get the X into service to get TSB done on the steering wheel audio controls that are now acting up, the X will be all-systems-go again. |
|
|
|
