EGme

Got it into a parking garage next to the road. Crap this sucks.
94civicSi HB. It stalled on freeway the other night. Mysteriously I was able to restart it the next day. Didint figure out what it was. Replaced distibutor with new one this morning. It just stalled again. This time I was payng attention:

*15 min driving city backroads stop and go traffic.
*Heard relay click. Car dies, no dash lights except headlight switch back lighting.

Try to restart-*
Key full on - no dash lights at all! No relay clicks, everything dead except headlights, cigaret lighter.*

Jumped two pin. Since no dash lights, no CEL.
The other day when the car mysteriously started running again, the two pin gave me a solid(no blinking) CEL.

Main Relay...ECU?

Help. What the $&@! is going on? Best way to figure it out?

racingcrx

Possibly a ground loose or rusted or corroded? just a opinion

tico

its ur main relay. try a buddys and drive it for a while and see. then pop urs in and drive some more see if it dies. then put the good one and see if she starts right back up

Matt93eg

Also, Check the ground on the thermostat housing and make sure its tight with a clean surface.

EGme

stranded, typing on iPhone...thanks for the quick responses guys.

Checked grounds, all good, includng new bat. The dizzy is also new although I don't think it's the culprit.

Thing is, turning the key to second position there are no dash lights...no cel no oil pressure No main relay clicks, fuel pump hum etc...All switches operating lights Do work...

If there's no power to ECU then Main relay wouldn't work...is this right? When car died I heard something click in the area of the main relay like it was doing it's duty to shut off. Is the main easy to switch out 15min or 3 hour job, looks tight up there?
...or does this sound more like my ECU just took a dump on me. @&$!

Matt93eg

Don't really know about the ECU and all that, I am not very good with problems that seem to be electric.

The main relay isn't to bad to change, kinda aggravating, IIRC, there is 1 10mm bolt holding it on. Its just kinda aggravating to get to it. Once you get it off and plug a new one in, just leave it un-bolted and tucked out of the way until you make sure the problem is narrowed down and fixed.

On a couple Civics I have re-soldered the contacts on the Main Relay to get by a while longer. Pop the relay open and take a soldering gun and just heat up each solder joint, don't add solder, just heat up to let it liquify(sp)and then let it cool down. I have seen it work several times. Last car it was done to was my Cousin's Del-Sol and I told her to go ahead and get a new one pretty quick. She never did and its still fine and I resoldered it years ago. Just a FYI

EGme

Matt93eg thanks for your help. Im pretty good with a soldering gun, pops was an electrician. Ill take a look when i can get my car to a better place.

Does anyone know where the Main Relay gets its power from... i'm guessing through the ignition switch...?

If the Main Relay failed would this explain why my dash wont light up anymore? Does it supply power to all the dash indicators, (CEL, oil etc...?)

im now at an apple store...typing on a notebook. its warmer here.

EGme

OK, here we go again. i get into the car again this morning and put the key into position2. IT works, all dash lights and relay clicks, fuel pump hum etc... son of a... followed the tow truck back home instead of towing it.

the car did come with a Clifford alarm....maybe the ignition kill. Wonder if that's going haywire. I don't know what model it is or how to find out. Wonder if these symptoms apply to the behavior expected from one of those?

anyone know how the ignition kill features work?

1grex

or ign. switch