john'sD16Aek

Hi ive been having some trouble lately with my car not turning on..
I have a 1997 Honda Civic EX 4 door , its been happening to me lately and occurs on and off somedays it wont lag and somedays it will lag alot!

When i go to turn on my car i put the clutch in and turn the key all the way to the on position, i let the ecu load i guess it takes about threee seconds for the c.e.l to flash so i guess thats the ecu loading or something, then i turn the key to start the car and nothing happens not a stutter? It dosent make any sound or attempt to start Its like if the car has no battery but it does.

I thought my starter went bad but then some friends told me that it would try to turn on if the starter was bad but since my car dosent do anything they told me it was likely not the starter i wasnt sure tho.

To be sure i took it to auto zone to do the free Battery/alternator/and starter check and all the test's came out fine everything is working fine but my car still has that lag to turn on ?

I checked my c.e.l and its p0141 which is for my secondary o2 sensor, so i dont think that has anything to do with the car starting.

Please help with any advice?

Also this has happened to me 4 times already i got my car 4 months ago about a month or 2 later it did like a jerk/stall when i just started driving i was in 1st or second gear. It felt like the car ran out of gas and wanted to go off just for a second like a said a jerk/stall. I thought it mightve been my fault that i let go of the gas or clutched wrong since i was barely starting to drive a standard.

But then a couple days ago the same thing happened to me and this time i was going on second and going steady with the gas since i learned standard good already i knew it wasnt my fault this time. Then i was paying real close attention to see if i was messing up the next day when i was leaving on 2nd gear again the car does the same jerk/stall and i kept the gas steady and payed close attention so i know it wasnt me messing with it.

I have no idea what is causing these 2 problems for me, so i hope someone knows about this and can help me out?? thanks in advance to everyone!

john'sD16Aek

any help??

accorse07

IMO it sounds like a Distributor problem for the jerk/stall.
as for the trouble starting issue...you may want to take a look at your clutch pedal switch. There is this small white plastic tab that is about 1/4inch thick that may have gone brittle and is braking off of the lever on the top of your actual clutch pedal.

john'sD16Aek

ok is ther anyway to test the distributor without changing it i dont have money so i cant change parts without knowing if its gonna fix the problem?

and for the clutch pedal switch i remeber last month i heard some squeaking when i would clutch in and out maybe that went bad?

can you give me any more info on that ? and exact name for it so i can look for the part? thanks man

accorse07

Everyone's description of something that is wrong is going to be different...If you can't get your hands on a spare working Dizzy to try out, I don't know what to tell you. From the sounds of it, the jerk/stall is intermittent. Check your cap and rotor and go from there...

As for the clutch pedal switch, its actually called a Pad/Pedal Stopper...I don't know why. Here is the part number 46505-SA5-000. It costs like a buck so it wont break the bank to get a few and replace them while your under the dash screwing with the pedal assembly. Checking if it is actually breaking or broken is very cumbersome and is why i recommend just changing them if your gonna be under there.

Better yet, when is the last time you washed the car? Does there happen to be any plastic remnant of anything on the floor? Would either be a pointy plastic screw looking thing or simply the screw part is broken and only the round 1/4inch button is left.

GhostAccord

What do your power and ground connections look like? A loose connection or dirty (corroded) ground on the engine or one of the battery terminals could cause your starting issue.

GIZZ - EXV

Sounds like the electrical back half of the ignition switch is failing. It's about a $70 part from Honda for your car. Very common problem, wiggle the key in the ignition with ign on and the dash lights may flicker, wiggle it with car running and car may stall. The shift into gear or accel, decel or turns with weighted key chains will cause the jerk/stall you described. Keep your key chain light to avoid this problem.

john'sD16Aek

ok ima check when i can test out a good distributor see if that helps,
ima change all those pedal stoppers since there a buk or so Thanks for the part number !!

Yea i checked my battery and the black wire thats going to ground is kinda cut like 1 or 2 wires so ima connect it tonight see if that helps Thanks Ghost!

That might be right now that im checking the key it moves around alot when its in the on position im going just use my key by itself keep it as light as possible till i get it fixed !

Im also gonna check the main relay i read on alot of other forums that it might be affecting it too

Thanks for all your help now i know where to start cuz for real sometimes i gotta hold that **** for like 30 secs
fucken pisses me off