Hello,
My girlfriends 87 accord is not starting. It's a very weird situation. It was working all day, then she parked it for a few hours and when she came back it just would not start.

Here are the symptoms:
--when the key is turned it just clicks once, the radio and lights come on..but the car does not even try to turn over...no chugging sounds or anything!

Here's what i've tried so far:
-Jumping the car...even when her car is hooked up to mine it still doesn't even try to turn over, or ignite.
-gave it another gallon of gas...I couldn't tell if the car was out of gas, because it would not turn on far enough for the gas gauge to work...anyway extra gas also did nothing.

I would love any other suggestions about things to check, or possible fixes for this issue.

thanks to this community!
--Corey

 

Could be a bunch of things.

If it just clicks, usually, it means your battery is drained. A battery can go south without giving you a warning.

If you tried to boost it, you should maybe leave the cables on your gf's battery for a couple of minutes to make sure that at least the battery is charged a bit.

Turn on the headlights. DO the lights dim alot when you try to start it?

fs

 

 

Sounds like a bad starter. Is it a manual tranny? bump start it.

 

also look into the condition of the grounds, especially the ones connected to the engine... it also wouldn't hurt to charge the battery for a few hours, either...

make sure the starter is getting power... if the starter isn't getting power, then (obviously) it won't turn...

to me this sounds like a low current problem, so check out all of the connections to everything... i had the same problem on my 88 accord, and it was a combination of a dying battery and bad grounds...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Vanilla Sky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">also look into the condition of the grounds, especially the ones connected to the engine... it also wouldn't hurt to charge the battery for a few hours, either...</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll second this one. Two times in the past 6 yrs my 92 Accord has has the same exact symptoms. Both times I replaced the Neg. Battery cable and it was fixed.

 

Is it carbed or fuel injected?

 

I replaced the battery...it still wouldn't start...had to get it towed to a mechanic for diagnostics and they claim the alternator and the starter are bad. I don't know if i belive them..but i'm really not car savvy enough to do some of the troubleshooting you guys have mentioned.

thanks for all the suggestions guys! and if anyone is in the portland/salem area that wants to make some money by helping me troubleshoot in person PM or email me.

thanks again!
--Corey

 

Could be the electrial portion of the ignition switch worn out or the solinoide is weak on the starter..

 

well we ended up having it towed to a mechanic and they tell us that the starter and the alternator are dead.

I would love to pay someone else besides the mechanics to install these parts. Any one up to it?


Thanks again for all the suggestions!
--Corey