Have a 2002 honda civic I use as a summer/back-up car to the truck. been driving her lately (as the weather is now decent), and while on the highway the other day, noticed my radio, then dashboard, then windows all ceased to operate. car slowly ground to a halt about 2 miles from my house, totally dead.

has been sitting in my driveway for the past 3 days, too lazy to really think or do anything about it.

my hunch says I need a new alternator. not really super mechanically inclined, so thinking I should just jump it and bring it to my garage, as I wonder if it may be a general wiring issue.

any thoughts?

I would try jumping it off and if it starts let it idle for a couple minutes. Then remove the negative jump lead from the civic. See if the engines dies. If it does then it points toward the alternator. It's not a bad job on those. You could swap it with basic tools and a YouTube tutorial.

Also make sure the battery cables are not corroded horribly. And if someone is more knowledgeable than me on Honda's I would add there could be a fuseable link or main fuse between battery and alternator. Not sure though but should be checked.

And you will want that battery slow charged and then checked for a dead cell. Dying batteries kill alternators. And vice versa. May end up replacing both.

when the battery went in my nephews' 05 ranger, it actually took the alternator with it.
His drove fine until he stopped for gas and it refused to restart. It took several minutes jumping off my mom's Trax to get it fired again and then once we tried to take off with it, the engine quit and would not refire until we jumped it again. After holding the RPM's at around 3-4k, it got enough of a charge to get it home, but would not refire once there. We changed out the battery since it failed on the tester. Alternator tested fine. The next day, he started out to head to school and the battery light came on. Alternator had failed. So, purchased an alternator. Both the battery and alternator were factory originals. Since we changed battery and alternator, truck has behaved normally.

To me, in my experience, it sounds like your alternator has went kaput. I know it's expensive, but I would maybe keep a battery in mind as well... just in case.

Sounds like an alternator... but, grounding issues can display some wonky symptoms too. I suggest checking all your major wiring, then yanking the battery and alt and carrying it to a parts house that has a tester.

Thanks all. The battery is fairly new (6 months old), albeit cheap as hell.

Going to try to jump it and go from there. Hoping she'll start up, but then die, probably indicating its the alternator.

If so, seems as though I can order one for like $90 and replace myself fairly easily. Really hope it's not a wiring issue.

Will keep everyone in the loop ;)

Testing should be free... have both tested.

Posted by Wheedle Testing should be free... have both tested.

Yeah will do, there is a NAPA right down the street from my house.

Update: jumped her with the truck, all electronics immediately came back online, after about 5 minutes she started up no problem. Let her charge up for about 15 minutes, then as soon as I unplugged the cables, car immediately died (engine & all electronics).

Next step is to test alternator & battery and roll from there...

Another weird problem I know I have seen is where your starter relay has a bad connection and some how is getting a backfeed of 12V so it thinks its being cranked...guess what happens?

Did you check the voltage at the battery terminals w/the engine running?