gworfish

Hi gang,

I'm new to the forum, but more important I'm new to troubleshooting.

A friend bought a 94 Civic Si a few weeks ago. It had trouble starting - sounded exactly like a dead battery, with just a click and some humming, but engine doesn't turn over. The guy she bought it from said he'd been looking at it, confirmed the alternator was good and replaced the battery. He told her that as far as he knew the next thing to do was replace the ECU, which he described to her as a "small box in the fusebox, but not a fuse".

Now I know an ECU isn't in the fusebox, but I had a spare (long story) so I gave it a try. Still no good - tick, but no start. I can't find anything in the fusebox that fits the description, but I am new at this.

Any advice anyone could give me on what to check next? All I can think of is to start trying to find shorts.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

ezone

Won't crank?
Begin there. It can't run if the starter can't spin the crankshaft.

Battery good? Starter any good?
CAN YOU TURN THE ENGINE WITH A WRENCH? (I mean the crankshaft.) If the engine is locked up tight, all the starters in the world won't help.





Voltage drop test the power and ground for the starter?


http://www.autotechnician.org/starte...plain-english/

Quote from that site: As an instructor, I would see some techs in class cringe when they heard the words “voltage drop test” for testing poor starter circuit symptoms. It’s like I was shoving toothpicks up their fingernails! Funny thing is, once it’s understood, it’s used by every smart tech. It saves countless hours of trial and error and needless parts-swapping, and one Master Tech’s case (not me), 3 days of replacing batteries and starters and cleaning cable connections when it was just a bad ground cable internally. In fact, he even tested the battery cables off of the car with an ohm meter! Hmmm….!



HTH

gworfish

Thanks for the reply ezone.

The engine can still turn, and the battery is good, so all my attention is on the starter now. I'll read that article you provided now and try a voltage drop test - once I read how to do it.

I did pick up a started from my local Pick-n-Pull, from their list of compatible units, and while the starter and solenoid look almost identical to what I have, it didn't go in. There seems to be an interface plate between the unit and the block, and on the "new" unit the bolt holes are further apart than the one I took off. Anyone know if I can swap this piece and be good? Or did Pick-n-Pull get it wrong and I have an incompatible starter?

Thanks to all who read this!

ezone

Tap on the starter while someone else is twisting the key. If it cranks this way, the solenoid has bad contacts. Replace solenoid or complete starter.

kellogg6316

you might want to run a ground wire from negative post on the battery to the starter case. this can provide a better circuit than the traditional grounding of the starter through the transmission case.