My car wouldn't start last night

[Mar]

Here are the exact steps which took place:

- I drove pretty far within Calgary to my friend's house and parked my car in his driveway. Nothing electrical was left on.
- I was in his house less than 30 minutes.
- I came out of his house and tapped my Compustar remote, my siren chirped, it dearmed and my pager beeped. The doors had unlocked.
- I got in the car, turned the key, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing happened, it was silence. No lights on the dash, no radio, no beeps, no clicking, nothing.
- I tried it a few more times, same thing.
- I tried putting the electric window down, it went down no problem, normal speed. I do have the windows wired directly into the fuse box, no relay, so they work when the car is off. Been working fine this way for 4 years.
- He has a steep driveway so I let it roll onto the street so I could start it on the clutch but it didn't catch.
- I pushed the hazard light button but nothing happened, they didn't come on.
- He pulled his car out and we hooked up the jumper cables but the same thing, nothing happened. I still didn't have any radio, no lights and it wouldn't start.
- I touched the cables together to make sure there was battery power, it made a big spark. We have power.
- We pushed it up a steep hill about 50 metres up, then I tried to start it on the clutch 3 times on the way down, it wouldn't work. I've done this many times in the past, not sure why it wouldn't work this time.
- I let it coast back to his driveway where I got halfway up his driveway and ran out of momentum.
- I instinctly hit the hazards again since I was sticking into the road and surprisingly now they were working. I turned the key and it started up no problem.

What could be dying on it? Starter? Battery? Alternator?

It's a 2005 Honda Civic with an Optima Yellow Top battery.

[kvg]

It could be a wiring problem due to the Compustar

[FraserB]

Loose connection somewhere near the battery?

[Darkane]

Push the clutch in harder. That switch is likely getting worn.

If it happens again try to put the clutch through the firewall. It'll start.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by Darkane
Push the clutch in harder. That switch is likely getting worn.

If it happens again try to put the clutch through the firewall. It'll start.

Clutch kill-switch should just prevent starting, not prevent ALL electric from coming on, shouldn't it?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Darkane
Push the clutch in harder. That switch is likely getting worn.

If it happens again try to put the clutch through the firewall. It'll start.

He's getting no power even in "accessory", so not likely

Originally posted by kvg
It could be a wiring problem due to the Compustar

More likely.

[Idiot Stick]

Similar issue on my mr2 this summer. Would start from time to time and other times I'd get sweet f all

Loose connection at the battery. Main line was good. Smaller wire was brittle at the end. I'd say give that a close look.

[Mar]

Originally posted by kvg
It could be a wiring problem due to the Compustar

Maybe but that was installed 9 years ago. And the brain was replaced after it died maybe 2 years ago.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Mar


Maybe but that was installed 9 years ago. And the brain was replaced after it died maybe 2 years ago.

Ahh, thought it was the vehicle from your computstar thread. In that case probably a bad ground.

[Cooked Rice]

I have a feeling it has something to do with the wiring that was done for your windows. Go back and recheck the work that was done in the fusebox. It's amazing what kind of nest jobs people pull off with wiring when they get their fingers into those places.

[Darkane]

Originally posted by Mibz
Clutch kill-switch should just prevent starting, not prevent ALL electric from coming on, shouldn't it?

Truth. Carry on nothing to see here lol.

[HuMz]

Any corrosion on the positive terminal?

[CelicaST-162]

Originally posted by FraserB
Loose connection somewhere near the battery?

[BokCh0y]

Originally posted by FraserB
Loose connection somewhere near the battery?

THIS.

Or your roommate moved back is fucking with you.

[revelations]

Generally alarms dont interfere with accessory mode. I could see a no-start condition happening (turn key and no crank) but the dash lights, ECU, etc should power on regardless if the alarm is malfunctioning.

Did you check the fuses? (first thing I always check after the battery).

[D. Dub]

Ummm, test your battery and alternator?

[Mar]

I don't quite have much time to diagnose the issues until this weekend but here are today's symptoms. I will start taking advice posted in this thread over the weekend.

- Got into car at 7:30am, dome light came on when I opened the door.
- Tried to start car
- 2 clicks, all lights went off
- I jiggled around the wiring on the battery terminals
- car started no problem
- drove to coffee shop, drove back home, drove to work, drove home, back to work, back home again. Car started all day without problems.

[RickDaTuner]

Defenitely loose, or corroded battery terminals, battery wires, or grounding point.

Bad negative battery cables are common on your year of honda, but given your symptoms, I would say its just a loose or corroded terminal.

The windows worked because of the lack of amp draw, those motors can pull as little
as 2amps depending on the manufacturer, one the key was turned to acc, or run, the amp draw was too great due to the resistance at the fault, and will make it seem like there is no power.

post pics of battery!

[italianstylez]

Same issue on my Honda remove battery terminals clean them and check all wires to terminals one of mine was internally broken I stripped it and re did the connecter and trouble free since

[Mar]

Originally posted by RickDaTuner
Defenitely loose, or corroded battery terminals, battery wires, or grounding point.

Bad negative battery cables are common on your year of honda, but given your symptoms, I would say its just a loose or corroded terminal.

The windows worked because of the lack of amp draw, those motors can pull as little
as 2amps depending on the manufacturer, one the key was turned to acc, or run, the amp draw was too great due to the resistance at the fault, and will make it seem like there is no power.

post pics of battery!

Even if it's common, I replaced the battery with an Optima Yellow Top so I no longer have the factory battery terminals.
The windows worked because they're wired directly to the battery, they don't use the factory wiring at all. I understand that now though it was confusing me before.