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Hi everyone, hoping you guys can point me in the right direction.

I have a '99 Civic, that got into an accident. Airbags deployed, needed some front end maintenance. Work is done there and chassis is fixed atm, but something is happening with the ECU. My dash lights all turn on, except for the CEL light. It just stays off. Car won't crank, no relay clicking, no fuel pump noise, nothing. When I turn the key the dash lights just go out and, complete silence.

I've been reading some threads, but haven't found a specific context for this situation, but I'm thinking it could be something in the ground wiring, since the front end got painted and it's not making contact with metal like it should? Maybe a blown fuse or even the ECU got bad? Even the battery, is it possible to turn on the dash lights and not be able to provide enough power to the ECU to turn it on?

I've ran out of battery power in the past and the ECU always turned on, even it the car had to be jump started.

Car is currently at the said workshop, but they're clueless. What do you guys make of this situation? I thoroughly appreciate your time

 
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They could have paint on the ground connection from the head to the radiator mount up front/forgot to reconnect it.

 
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Why isn't the shop taking care of it? If they can't handle it, they should send it to a shop that can handle it.

 
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Thanks

Yeah I was thinking about the same thing. My only doubt and concern is regarding the fact that all dash lights go on, except for the CEL.

I would think none of them would turn on if the ground cable was incorrectly installed due to the paint.

Do you think it's possible for the ECU to be the only component not being able to turn on due to this ground thing?

 
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Thanks for the reply

I completely agree with you about that, and I did teel them the same thing.

Unfortunately my car stayed there for a long time, and I needed to constantly check what they were doing at a given point because the work became unbelievably confusing at times, in terms of getting **** done. Pardon my language, but I started to loose trust in the garage, so now I need to inspect the work for myself. There is a lot of stuff involving this thing, but not worth mentioning right now.

 
Rep Power: 518

Check the ground wires that are supposed to be attached to the thermostat housing (behind the distributor), that's the main ground point for the engine computer and most of the parts that it controls. . Loose? Corroded?

Lost the battery ground or a problem with a ground cable for the engine block or trans?

 
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Probably loose since the engine was taken off the car and put back in again, so I will attend to those ground cables first and check the fuses again, I'm starting to think it's the ground cables too.

Will post some feedback after I get a chance to look at it, thank you 👍🏻