Lights dimming when stereo plays
Thread Starter
Lead Lap
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 478
Likes: 0
From: Elizabeth City, NC
Lights dimming when stereo plays
Ok, kind of hard to explain. I noticed a couple of times when I'm blasting my stereo and I'm at a stop light, the dash lights (it's at night) will blink and start dimming. I turn the music down and everything is fine again.
Then tonite on my way home, I was doing the same thing, but this time it's like the car wanted to stall on top of that. It's like the car wanted to have a power outtage. So, i turned off the a/c and turned the stereo down and turned off the fogs, trying to make sure i have power.
When im at a stop light, im sitting there and every few seconds the car feels like it's nudged a second like when you're about to stall and then it's ok, but it keeps doing that. then when im giving power (to accelerate because the light is green) it kind of putters.
it's a 2002 is300 with just under 71k miles.
WTF
im hoping it's just a battery, but im hoping it's fine in the morning because i have to drive a long way to work for the next 2 weeks and really dont want or have the time to deal with this ****.
please advise.
Then tonite on my way home, I was doing the same thing, but this time it's like the car wanted to stall on top of that. It's like the car wanted to have a power outtage. So, i turned off the a/c and turned the stereo down and turned off the fogs, trying to make sure i have power.
When im at a stop light, im sitting there and every few seconds the car feels like it's nudged a second like when you're about to stall and then it's ok, but it keeps doing that. then when im giving power (to accelerate because the light is green) it kind of putters.
it's a 2002 is300 with just under 71k miles.
WTF
im hoping it's just a battery, but im hoping it's fine in the morning because i have to drive a long way to work for the next 2 weeks and really dont want or have the time to deal with this ****.
please advise.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 31,944
Likes: 2,738
From: North Carolina
Could be the battery but its likely your alternator going bad.
Take your car to a local auto parts store, most all of them will do a free test on the battery to see if its good and you can rule that out.
PS I updated your thread title to something a little more descriptive and with less cursing shorthand in it
Take your car to a local auto parts store, most all of them will do a free test on the battery to see if its good and you can rule that out.
PS I updated your thread title to something a little more descriptive and with less cursing shorthand in it
^^ like he said. Either your battery or alternator. I would believe its your alternator going out since its not charging your battery enough. Test your battery first and if its bad test the alternator before getting a new battery. Alternator should still be working but could be charging at very low amps. your sparkplug isnt causing the lighting one. maybe the puttering is from the car not having enough power or something. fix that first and see if it still does it?
are you running a capacitor? if not, your systems drawing way too much current from your car which takes away from the performance of the car. either get a capacitor to regulate the power being drawn from your system or run a bigger alternator and battery setup to support the system.
Thread Starter
Lead Lap
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 478
Likes: 0
From: Elizabeth City, NC
a friend of mine has a diagnostics thingy, he ran it twice on my car and the codes that came up are po30501 and po30502, which say cylinder 5/6 misfires detected. so it's either my sparkplugs (which i think it is) or the wires to them. my wires still look new, but because my idle is so low i think it's my plugs. right now, im looking for where everyone in hawaii is getting their tuneups done on their lexus'.
i cant post in the hawaii section because im still banned, so thats why i post here.
ANYONE IN HAWAII READING THIS KNOW WHERE EVERYONE IS TAKING THEIR CARS? i want to steer away from servco, one place already quoted me $600 but weren't sure if they had the tools to do it. (so that's a no).
i cant post in the hawaii section because im still banned, so thats why i post here.
ANYONE IN HAWAII READING THIS KNOW WHERE EVERYONE IS TAKING THEIR CARS? i want to steer away from servco, one place already quoted me $600 but weren't sure if they had the tools to do it. (so that's a no).
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