Rep Power: 292

Just happened all of a sudden... just got home... parked... and wanted to go out to get some dessert for V-Day with the girl and the car wouldnt crank or anything.

When I put the car to the On position, I wait and hear the fuel pump prime. Then I proceed to crank it over but all I get is multiple clicking noises from relays or something in the steering column and in the glovebox (ecu) area.

The starter makes no noise whatsoever. I just put a new battery in a few weeks ago so I thought maybe the battery might be dead/faulty so I got another one from my cousin cuz he was just about to put it in his civic. Still same thing.... just clicking noises. But now when I just put it to the "On" position it will make those clicking sounds for awhile then disappear. I try to crank and then the clicking starts happening again. I think it might be a short circuit somewhere but I dont even know where to begin. When the clicking happens the voltage drops drastically. I've tried everything I can think of... please help!

Thanks... anything is appreciated...


Sorry forgot to mention is freezing cold outside -25+ Celcius... I am so upset .. this has never happened ever.. it was fine all day too.

 
Rep Power: 369

Check your starter ground AND clean off your battery terminals and clamps with a little steel wool.

If that don't work, call me...you have my celly still, no?

 
Rep Power: 247

if you do a search there are threads on this. i remember seeing one just the other day actually.

 
Rep Power: 292

Thx Telly for the advice.. I cleaned up the connections and the starter and everything with no luck so I just left it for the night... but the next morning I called up my other friend for some advice and he said it sounds like a bad ground. He told me in order to isolate the problem... Take a set of booster cables and connect one clamp directly to the negative terminal of the battery, and the other end to the engine block. Sure enough the car cranks and starts no problem. When I removed the booster cables, it wouldnt start again So I took off the grounding wires cleaned off all the terminals. Although it looked like they were fine, there was a layer of salt corrosion that I ended up using a file to clean up till it was bare shiny metal. Sure enough the car starts fine after that.

Afterwards I took the time to take apart all the grounding wires in the engine bay and cleaned off the terminal and the contact points and now the car runs even smoother than before! Dont let non rusty looking connections fool you

Thanks all!

 
Rep Power: 0

Salt corrosion? This only happens in places that snow right? Sometimes I have trouble starting the car, it grinds like yours did...guess I should check my grounds.