shady visions

I remember reading through main relay problem threads, and I think I saw someone saying that you could tell one was bad by the board color or something of the sort.

Anyways, I took mine out, compared it to the one on this site:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainrelay.html

And the brownish-discolorations look pretty much the same. So I am guessing it is fine? Or you aren't able to tell by the coloring?

Tankard

While you've got it out, go ahead and re solder all of those solder points. Simply melt the existing solder and add a bit to each point. Doing this to mine fixed my hard starting when warm and hesitation problems.

CroCivic90DX

Tankard gave you a good advice. Just go ahead and resolder all joints. Here are some joints that seem problematic from viewing at the picture. You can tell they are problematic by the solder joint having some sort of "circle" at the middle-to-outer part of it.

shady visions

Alright, sounds good, but after I took it out, I put it back in so I wouldn't lose it. The car won't start (as if the battery is dead, but it isn't), but it WILL start when I jump the car. It's been having this problem for a few months, and I keep searching and checking bad wires, and I'm not finding anything.

I've replaced the battery connectors twice now, so, could it be the battery? I know the alternator works, because once the car is started, it is fine and doesn't lose power. But when I turn the car off, the power tries to start, and just dies away, it seems.

RevengeCRX

Double check your ground to body connection, my crx used to do that, and turned out the battery was grounding out. You can get your alternator tested for free at Autozone. The ghetto way of testing the alternator is by removing the positive cable while the car is running, if the car dies, then your alternator is faulty. BTW, I had to replace the battery eventually, when the car just wouldn't turn on anymore.

shady visions

Well, I did check my grounds and I couldn't see anything faulty.
I charged the battery last night, turned the lights on, etc, and the battery was working fine. This morning I come out (about 12 hours later), and the battery still has power, etc. I tried to start the car but all that would happen is the dash lights (CEL?) would come on, wouldn't crank or anything.

RevengeCRX

Does your tach go crazy when you turn the key? Does your dash make a clicking sound when trying to start? Do your dash lights dim when turning the key? If that's the case, then it's your battery. Try jumping it again to see if that helps. Trust me, if you have to jump your car every time to get it to crank, then it's your battery. If all that doesn't help, then you might have a bad starter. First check all the connections on the starter and make sure there nice and secure. Try hitting the starter with a pole or something and starting the car, if it starts up, then it's definitely your starter.

shady visions

Okay.
Here's what happens to the car without jumping it.
Turn the key into spot 1, nothing happens.
Turn the key into spot 2, the dash-lights come on (door, brake, etc). Those lights.
Turn the key into spot 3, the dask lights go off, and nothing else happens.

RevengeCRX

That's definitely a sign of a bad battery or ground connection. Do you hear a loud snap, like a fuse blew somewhere? That's a sign that the battery is really low, or one of the grounds either on the starter or battery is bad. My rex was doing the same thing, and when I tightened down the battery posts, and gave it a jump, it started right up. Double check that stuff.

shady visions

Alright, so I did what you said and tried to jump it to start it. It worked perfectly. Now, I noticed I was idling high, so I went and loosened the throttle cable so that it would idle ~1k RPMs. It idled fine, it even revved up better for some reason. Anyways, I turn it off and take the cables off, and the battery still has power. So, I turn the key back into position 2, the lights in the dash come on, and then I turn it to position 3 and all I hear is a weird noise coming from the front of the car like a "zzt zzt zzt zzt + clicking" noise. What would this be? I am thinking starter or ignition, but not too sure?