2007 Honda Civic Debugging - Clicking noise, won't start
03-29-2017
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2007 Honda Civic Debugging - Clicking noise, won't start
Hi, I'm hoping that I might be able to get some help debugging what's going on with my car. It's a 2007 Honda Civic LX. About 2 weeks ago now I came outside from work to find my car unable to start. It wouldn't jump start, so I got it towed to a dealership. They wanted more than the car was worth to fix it, so I opted to just pay them for the inspection and have it towed back to my place. They told me what they determined was wrong and a good friend who used to be a mechanic is helping me out.
--- Syptoms/What we've done so far---
*The two days prior to it dying it took longer to start than usual.
*The dealership said that the engine harness needed replaced as it was extremely corroded at the positive battery terminal. We did this ourselves last night.
*It still won't start. The dealership said I need a new battery, which we haven't done. But I think we may have ruled out that being the only remaining problem.
*When hooked up to a trickle charger for a bit, the car will try to turn over, but cannot start. When the key is in the last position before starting it has a continuous rapid clicking that doesn't go away until pulling the key back a position. The clicking seems to be coming from the fuse box under the hood.
*My neighbor came over this afternoon to try to help, we tried disconnecting my battery and hooking the terminals straight to his car battery with jumper cables and it still wouldn't start. This is why we suspect the problem isn't soley the battery.
*I grabbed out my multimeter to check continuity at the fuse box. The + terminal is definitely connected well. When I checked the connection to ground at the fuse box it seemed ok when I checked before trying to start the car. After I tried to start the car there was a large resistance between the connection and the negative terminal of the battery that slowly decreased with time (seems like something charged up and is discharging?).
Any suggestions for what I should be trying next to try to get a better idea as to what is going wrong?
I've contemplated selling it and getting something else, but I'd really like to make this car last a few more years until I'm done with grad school :/
--- Syptoms/What we've done so far---
*The two days prior to it dying it took longer to start than usual.
*The dealership said that the engine harness needed replaced as it was extremely corroded at the positive battery terminal. We did this ourselves last night.
*It still won't start. The dealership said I need a new battery, which we haven't done. But I think we may have ruled out that being the only remaining problem.
*When hooked up to a trickle charger for a bit, the car will try to turn over, but cannot start. When the key is in the last position before starting it has a continuous rapid clicking that doesn't go away until pulling the key back a position. The clicking seems to be coming from the fuse box under the hood.
*My neighbor came over this afternoon to try to help, we tried disconnecting my battery and hooking the terminals straight to his car battery with jumper cables and it still wouldn't start. This is why we suspect the problem isn't soley the battery.
*I grabbed out my multimeter to check continuity at the fuse box. The + terminal is definitely connected well. When I checked the connection to ground at the fuse box it seemed ok when I checked before trying to start the car. After I tried to start the car there was a large resistance between the connection and the negative terminal of the battery that slowly decreased with time (seems like something charged up and is discharging?).
Any suggestions for what I should be trying next to try to get a better idea as to what is going wrong?
I've contemplated selling it and getting something else, but I'd really like to make this car last a few more years until I'm done with grad school :/
03-29-2017
#2
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: 2007 Honda Civic Debugging - Clicking noise, won't start
*The two days prior to it dying it took longer to start than usual.
Was the cranking speed normal?
Was the cranking speed slower than usual?
If there is a poor connection in one of the battery cables or connections that goes open circuit when loaded by the starter, it may get hot at the point of high resistance.
said I need a new battery, which we haven't done.
Put a charger on the battery.
Carry your battery into the Danger Zone and have it tested.
Put the voltmeter directly on the battery posts and crank it. What is the voltage reading DURING the cranking attempt?
we tried disconnecting my battery and hooking the terminals straight to his car battery with jumper cables
*I grabbed out my multimeter to check continuity at the fuse box. The + terminal is definitely connected well. When I checked the connection to ground at the fuse box it seemed ok when I checked before trying to start the car. After I tried to start the car there was a large resistance between the connection and the negative terminal of the battery that slowly decreased with time (seems like something charged up and is discharging?).
When testing at the fusebox, was someone trying to crank the starter while you were checking voltages? (loaded testing)
Google voltage drop testing
If the entire car goes dead when you try to crank it, check the ground cable mount beside the battery tray on the frame for corrosion/rust/poor connection
Many of these need a starter for problems with slow cranking and/or randomly won't crank.
04-09-2017
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Sorry for taking so long to get back here. Things have been really crazy lately and I haven't had a chance to respond. The car is now working and I figured I could give an update on what was wrong to perhaps be of assistance to anyone else that experiences similar symptoms.
When starting, it would take about 10-15 seconds of cranking to get started.
The voltage at the battery was (I think) 9V or lower. Way below what it should be. During this whole debugging process, whether the battery was bad or not was never really a question. It was just "what needs replaced in addition to the battery?".
A couple days after posting here I replaced the battery, the cable from the negative terminal to chassis, and the cable from chassis to engine block. When I pulled the grounding cables, they were horrendously corroded (they read in the megaohms of resistance).
After doing this, all lights and the radio would work. However, the car would still not start. It would crank, but it wouldn't do anything more. The clicking didn't go away and the check engine light was now on.
The next day a friend brought over his error code reader. He plugged it in and it found no error codes. Also, the car started. We drove it down the road and back and had no issues, though he noted that it had some weird readings. When we got back, we unplugged it and the car would no longer start.
After checking all of the fuses and relays (since the clicking seemed to come from the fuse box) I did some google'ing. It seems that a ground was missing, but it was being grounded through the code reader. After a thorough search, we found that we missed a bolt on the engine harness, just to the left of the air filter, that grounds the entire harness. Once we got a bolt in there, everything has been running great. In fact, after all of this work, it's been running much better than it has in a long time (faster/smoother acceleration).
When starting, it would take about 10-15 seconds of cranking to get started.
The voltage at the battery was (I think) 9V or lower. Way below what it should be. During this whole debugging process, whether the battery was bad or not was never really a question. It was just "what needs replaced in addition to the battery?".
A couple days after posting here I replaced the battery, the cable from the negative terminal to chassis, and the cable from chassis to engine block. When I pulled the grounding cables, they were horrendously corroded (they read in the megaohms of resistance).
After doing this, all lights and the radio would work. However, the car would still not start. It would crank, but it wouldn't do anything more. The clicking didn't go away and the check engine light was now on.
The next day a friend brought over his error code reader. He plugged it in and it found no error codes. Also, the car started. We drove it down the road and back and had no issues, though he noted that it had some weird readings. When we got back, we unplugged it and the car would no longer start.
After checking all of the fuses and relays (since the clicking seemed to come from the fuse box) I did some google'ing. It seems that a ground was missing, but it was being grounded through the code reader. After a thorough search, we found that we missed a bolt on the engine harness, just to the left of the air filter, that grounds the entire harness. Once we got a bolt in there, everything has been running great. In fact, after all of this work, it's been running much better than it has in a long time (faster/smoother acceleration).
