Hey everyone,

I have a 1990 accord lx that will not start. It worked fine on my way home from work and then the next morning it would not start. I checked the battery and that was good, I also have replaced the starter and coil on it now. Still nothing. When I turn the key to start it there is nothing. It will not crank, it is just dead.

I have read many posts on the main fuel relay getting too hot and causing that to make it not start but I thought that the engine would still crank. If anyone has any advice or help I would aprriciate it.

thanks,

 

wait a minute. we gotta go back to basics first.

tell me, do you see lights on the dash when you switch the key to "on"?

 

yes, the engine, battery and oil light come on as well as the seatbelt warning lights come on.

 

I had the fuel relay problem years ago. When it was hot in the car (since the relay is under the driver-side dash), the car would crank but not fire (no fuel). Resoldering the relay circuit board fixed that. Five years ago, and again recently, the car would not start when hot (parked for 1-2 hours after use). Both times it was the starter solenoid hanging due to the heat. I could tell it was the starter because when I turned the key from ON to START I could see the dash lights dim, due to the extra current the starter was trying to pull. Replacing the starter fixed that. My Accord is a manual transmission, so in those earlier cases I suspected the clutch switch could be bad. So far it has not been the culprit. On an auto transmission, the switch that determines Park and Neutral could be bad. My Mercedes had that one fail. If you have access to an electrical circuit diagram for your car, trace the path of current from the battery, through the key switch, to the starter, and see what items are in the path that could be bad.

 

yes, it is an automatic

I have already replaced the switch that tells it if it is in park. When that was the issue the display to tell you what gear you were in would not like up in Park because it was not registering. Currently all dash lights are on and it the red ring is around the 'P' for park so it knows it is in park.

 

alright, i have this trick that i do at work where i bypass the switches and relay to the starter.
buy a remote starter @ kragen and hook it up @ battery B+ side and the other end directly to the S terminal of the starter (small terminal in between the solenoid and motor terminal of starter).
turn the key to "on" then crank the engine by pressing the remote start button. If the car runs, then this will narrow down your problem to the control side of the starter which means it could be a starter relay problem, key switch problem, park switch and maybe an alarm system


at that point, at least you would be buying unnecessary parts.

let me know what happens.

 

thank you,

I will try that and report back to let you know which side it is on and then the final problem.

 

Well the solution to my problem!!!!!


The battery terminals were good putting out 12.6V. Everything seemed fine because I cleaned the terminals and the exposed wire when this whole problem started, but under the rubber it was still corroded. I cut back a few inches of the cable and it was pretty bad. The voltage there was only 10.2. So I cleaned up the conenction under the rubber and we are back in business!

So I made a $150 dollar mistake on a starter and a battery. I guess you live and learn,

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I really appriciate it!

David