shiren79

Hello all,
I'm here to seek for your advice and expertise regarding electrical issue. I'm hoping that one of you guys had similar experience and solution to it, I'm at total loss at this moment.
(*I've posted same post on other forum to hear from more enthusiasts, I hope you understand.)

I was working on a friend's 08 Civic (EX trim), evidently car had a faulty starter just like many 8th gen Civic owners. It took me some time to remove the mounting bolts, but I've managed to remove it from bell housing.

Problem may have caused here; As I was removing the positive terminal fastener on starter assembly, extension bar touched the engine block and electrical spark occurred. I looked at the battery immediately, negative cable was barely touching the terminal. I definitely should have secured the cable..
Contact was made between starter positive terminal and engine block, to be more specific, near the power steering pump area. It burnt several areas of my tool, as well as the fastener on + terminal.

After that, I was able to remove the whole starter assembly, took it to Autozone and had it tested. Turned out that solenoid was indeed the problem as it could not push the gear all the way down. It only pushed half way, and according to AZ employee, motor performance barely passed the test.

So I bought a Duralast starter and had it installed, reconnected everything but still did not start. This time, it did not even bother to crank. Prior to R&R, it was at least making some sort of growling noise as if solenoid was trying to engage, or motor was trying so hard to turn. After R&R, it's not even making such noise.

I've checked main fuse (100A), ignition switch fuse(50A?), every fuse that could possibly prevent starter from cranking, they were all intact. Battery is still producing 12.75v, it's only 2 months old. Radio, lights, all the switches, remote key, everything is working. I tried jump-start, it didn't help at all.


Here lies the questions.

a) Is there a possibility of damaging positive cable? It must have shorted out something somewhere because of my inability to be meticulous, but I simply cannot locate the culprits. Let's say I had cable shorted, how will I be able to diagnose it? The only electric diagnosis tool I have is multimeter.

b) Suppose that cable is not damaged, what else could it be? Even if the fuel pump and ignition coil fuses are blown, or some sensors are burnt, starter still should be able to crank the engine, it just wouldn't inject fuel or generate sparks. All I could think of is neutral safety switch, positive cable, battery, or in worst case, ECM.

c) Also is there a possibility of damaging the battery after such incident. My previous car had similar incident few years ago, a wrench in the trunk rolled over and touched positive and negative terminal of battery. (BMWs have batteries in the trunk, you know.) Anyhow, as far as I remember, voltage was fine but it wasn't cranking at all, just like now. (Not sure that radio and lights were working back then, though)


I would appreciate any input. I have no idea what to do unless I get something to try..
Thanks for your time, I'll look for ward to hear from you all!

Matt

shiren79

Problem solved. When I was removing the starter assembly, I pulled the wire incorrectly and wire popped out of connector housing, I thought I had it properly re-installed. When tracking down the source of problem, I took it off completely and just re-connected the wire without connector housing, and VOILA! Car started right up.
Always make sure EVERY connection is solid. Otherwise, you'll end up like me chasing after the ghost. :D