No Ignition
10-24-2014, 07:15 AM
#1
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
No Ignition
Hi guys.
On my way into work this morning the car dies on me. It tumbles but wont start. When I turn it to accessories no lights on the dashboard, but the car is tumbling strong. I went to the fuse box in the engine bay and pressed on a few relays. Tumbled again and it fires up. Made it as far as the next corner it dies again. This time i pulled the 3 relays and pushed them back in and it fires up again. Manage to make it to work. My questions is, is one of those relays going bad? and how can they affect the ignition if they are the cooling fan, heater motor and rr defroster relays? I looked at the ignition fuse 50 amp one and it seems to be good.
On my way into work this morning the car dies on me. It tumbles but wont start. When I turn it to accessories no lights on the dashboard, but the car is tumbling strong. I went to the fuse box in the engine bay and pressed on a few relays. Tumbled again and it fires up. Made it as far as the next corner it dies again. This time i pulled the 3 relays and pushed them back in and it fires up again. Manage to make it to work. My questions is, is one of those relays going bad? and how can they affect the ignition if they are the cooling fan, heater motor and rr defroster relays? I looked at the ignition fuse 50 amp one and it seems to be good.
10-24-2014, 07:42 AM
#2
Re: No Ignition
Hi guys.
On my way into work this morning the car dies on me. It tumbles but wont start. When I turn it to accessories no lights on the dashboard, but the car is tumbling strong. I went to the fuse box in the engine bay and pressed on a few relays. Tumbled again and it fires up. Made it as far as the next corner it dies again. This time i pulled the 3 relays and pushed them back in and it fires up again. Manage to make it to work. My questions is, is one of those relays going bad? and how can they affect the ignition if they are the cooling fan, heater motor and rr defroster relays? I looked at the ignition fuse 50 amp one and it seems to be good.
On my way into work this morning the car dies on me. It tumbles but wont start. When I turn it to accessories no lights on the dashboard, but the car is tumbling strong. I went to the fuse box in the engine bay and pressed on a few relays. Tumbled again and it fires up. Made it as far as the next corner it dies again. This time i pulled the 3 relays and pushed them back in and it fires up again. Manage to make it to work. My questions is, is one of those relays going bad? and how can they affect the ignition if they are the cooling fan, heater motor and rr defroster relays? I looked at the ignition fuse 50 amp one and it seems to be good.
Seems to be that pressing on the three relays and associating
that w/ the car firing up is an uncorroborated cause/effect relationship.
Can you start the car w/ all three relays removed? If so,
the above relationship is debunked. You'll need to look
elsewhere.
10-24-2014, 09:25 AM
#3
Re: No Ignition
And keeping to the same side of the coin as you. It's known for the relays to have bad solder joints (main relay comes to mind). Pushing on them could make a flaky solder joint make contact for a bit and vibration will separate it again.
If you get it to fire up, shut it down and pull one of the 3 relays and try starting again. With this trial and error method you might isolate which relay is having issues.
From there you can pop it open and resolder the solder joints and more than likely rehabilitate it.
Main Relay Fix, Troubleshooting (Honda, Acura) and how to solder
The above site I linked to talks about the main relay specifically but gives excellent information on the solder joint problems and what to look for and how to fix. Can be applied to any relay.
I really shouldn't humor you. I can't be certain you'd do the above poster's instructions and rule out your theory of the under hood relays. I also didn't peek into the FSM before posting and thought I'd just follow your path with you but when I did look at the FSM, the only 3 relays in the under hood fuse box as far as I can tell is for the Radiator Fan, Rear Window Defogger, and the Heater Motor, at least on my car. So if you followed the above posters concept, you'd find your thought processed debunked. I really shouldn't assume you would figure that out so am editing my post accordingly.
You need to test for spark which would have to do with either the coil or the igniter in most cases. Being your problem is intermittent, I would suspect the igniter. It's also possible your wires are bad, the plugs are finally beyond their service life, the rotor is toast and or the cap is on it's last legs.
If spark tests out, then you check for fuel, if fuel checks out, then you check compression and also your check mechanical timing.
Lastly, please update your first post to include your complete car information, Year, Make, Model, Trim, any modifications if any or Stock if not and ECU if not stock. Thanks.
And since you didn't update your first post, your thread got closed and you prevent others from providing accurate information as not all Honda's are the same. Without that information, everyone is operating blind.
If you get it to fire up, shut it down and pull one of the 3 relays and try starting again. With this trial and error method you might isolate which relay is having issues.
From there you can pop it open and resolder the solder joints and more than likely rehabilitate it.
Main Relay Fix, Troubleshooting (Honda, Acura) and how to solder
The above site I linked to talks about the main relay specifically but gives excellent information on the solder joint problems and what to look for and how to fix. Can be applied to any relay.
I really shouldn't humor you. I can't be certain you'd do the above poster's instructions and rule out your theory of the under hood relays. I also didn't peek into the FSM before posting and thought I'd just follow your path with you but when I did look at the FSM, the only 3 relays in the under hood fuse box as far as I can tell is for the Radiator Fan, Rear Window Defogger, and the Heater Motor, at least on my car. So if you followed the above posters concept, you'd find your thought processed debunked. I really shouldn't assume you would figure that out so am editing my post accordingly.
You need to test for spark which would have to do with either the coil or the igniter in most cases. Being your problem is intermittent, I would suspect the igniter. It's also possible your wires are bad, the plugs are finally beyond their service life, the rotor is toast and or the cap is on it's last legs.
If spark tests out, then you check for fuel, if fuel checks out, then you check compression and also your check mechanical timing.
Lastly, please update your first post to include your complete car information, Year, Make, Model, Trim, any modifications if any or Stock if not and ECU if not stock. Thanks.
And since you didn't update your first post, your thread got closed and you prevent others from providing accurate information as not all Honda's are the same. Without that information, everyone is operating blind.
Last edited by TomCat39; 10-24-2014 at 08:04 PM.
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