caliskier

Hello,

My 95 VTEC will not start, here is what I know...

1. Battery shows 12.5 to 12.6V with no load
2. Battery drops to 11.8 when I attempt to start it
3. No click from the starter, no attempt to turn over, nothing.
4. Using a test light I can see that I have power from the ignition switch along the ignition wire, to the solenoid terminal
5. Battery is 7 months old
6. Battery will start other vehicles
7. The car has not been driven very much in the last month, over the last week I drove it every day, each start was weaker than the last, it has sat 4 days over thanksgiving break and would not start this morning.

Questions...
A. I am pretty sure this is a bad starter. How do i determine what about the starter has gone bad?
B. What is causing the battery to drop to 11.8 if the starter is not engaging?

crazes

1st make sure than all the wires to your starter on there and not loose or not connected correctly. Then if thats good take a hammer and bang againist the starter. Sometimes starters tend to lock up from sitting there. After that try and see if it starts or you at least here a clicking sound.You eventually will need to get a starter. if You can just take your starter and bring it to autozone or advance. Most of the time they do free checks of this.


realize that more times you click over the key to start your drawing power from your battery which is why it dies. The more times you click it over more draw of power and battery will die.

caliskier

Thanks for the reply, I did pretty much exactly what you said, last night. Going to turn this into a quick write up.

caliskier

Ok, so, it was the starter, and the starter is probably the easiest thing to replace, here are the basic steps.

1. Determine if it really is your starter. A good guide I found on youtube for how to check if it is the alternator, starter, or just the battery is below. You might check this first or just tap it with a hammer.


2. If you think it is your starter, the next easiest thing to do is to simply tap the starter with a hammer like crazes says. Try to start, if it starts, you have a bad starter and you will probably need to replace it really soon, keep a hammer in your car.

3. If it still does not start, the next easiest thing to do is pull the solenoid terminal wire and test it with a volt meter or test light. It is a little connector, the smallest wire, it just plugs in. This wire goes from you key ignition switch to the starter, have someone attempt to start the car while testing this wire. If this does not work, you have an ignition problem somewhere on that line, not a starter problem.

4. If that comes out good, and like crazes says, your cables are all tight, you probably have a bad starter. Next steps are to pull the starter:

4-1. Remove your battery
4-2. Remove the plastic battery box if it is not connected to anything like mine wasn't it can be lifted out
4-3. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the battery pan in place (you may not need to do this step, but it made it easier for me to get to the lower starter bolt and it took like 1 min to remove these battery pan bolts). One you have the bolts out it will be attached to cables so you will want to just move it to the side, still connected to those cables.
4-4. Pull the two bolts from the starter and pull the starter cable (positive battery wire connected to the starter)
4-5. Starter will come right out

5. Like crazes says, take it to a auto parts store and have them bench test it, mine actually worked the first time, but would not work a second time until after I bumped it around a bit.

6. It was so easy to replace for me, aftermarket was a no brainer, i almost always buy from Majestic, but my prelude has 228k miles on it, and Majestic wanted $200. Oriley only wanted $90 including tax with a lifetime warenty, if I have to replace it every year, no biggy, it will be free and easy to do.

I know this is an easy job so this might not really help anyone, but this is how I give back to this forum.

God Bless...