Well after about two weeks of good running, the Prelude is misbehaving for me again. On occasion now, when I go to start the car, after it cranks over is makes a noise like I'm still turning the key. When I turn the key off, the engine shuts off, but keeps turning over (doesn't crank). Here is the REALLY weird part though. When I took the key completely out.... it STILL was turning over. After a few attempts at making it shut up by restarting, I got it to start without the noise... so whatever was stuck became unstuck. It's done it twice now in three days though, so it will happen again. Is that a bad starter? Any thoughts?

Matt

 

hey matt.

sounds like the starter solenoid is sticking; had this happen on an old F250 1982 farm truck.

you want to get this fixed, as it can/will destroy the starter and also could mangle up the flywheel ring gear, which will be expensive to have repaired.

todd

ps it totally fried the starter on the F250; it stuck and would not shut off; starter began smoking and literally melted down. we left the truck running for most of a day, finished the work we were doing, drove to the parts store, left it running, bought a starter and new solenoid, drove home, finally shut it off and replaced the parts!

 

Had that happen to the Accord. It wouldn't kick over and took a few tries. Finally I did what Todd did and drove to the parts store, left it running got a new starter. Replaced it and it was ok, took the older starter back and had it tested and it was completely kicked. The readings on it were off the scale.

If the position on the starter is like on the Accord you'll have a pain with the lower mounting bolt. On the Accord its on the lower end of the block.

 

Yeah, well I'm pretty sure the starter died this morning. I started it, and the starter stayed engaged. I shut it down and like before it kept turning over, however this time I couldn't fix it by restarting. Turning the key did absolutely nothing, and after about 5 minutes it stopped, with smoke coming out of the starter.

How hard is it to replace a starter?

 

Starter is held on with usually 2 bolts. It also depends on location.

Upper bolt is a cake, the lower bolt you may need to jack the car up or remove the battery. On mine I did both because it was too recessed in for my fat hands to get in there.

Job took an hour or so, half of which was spend staring at some chick sunbathing. The rest drinking a cold beverage and mostly cussing at small handed Japanese people.

Of course it helps when you have a laptop with the Honda shop manual on it.

 

I have the Honda shop manual, so that isn't the problem. Are starters pretty standard? Can I get one at like Pep Boys, or do I need a Honda one?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94accordsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Upper bolt is a cake, the lower bolt you may need to jack the car up or remove the battery. On mine I did both because it was too recessed in for my fat hands to get in there.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Its on top of the bellhousing, why would you jack up the car to do this?

The service manual spells it out just fine..... Any parts store reman unit will be ok.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Its on top of the bellhousing, why would you jack up the car to do this?

The service manual spells it out just fine..... Any parts store reman unit will be ok.</TD></TR></TABLE>

On the Accord the lower bolt is recessed in where its hard to get it from the top. It was easier to jack it up and get it from the bottom.

 

Extension + U-joint

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Extension + U-joint</TD></TR></TABLE>

Had neither of those...

When all you got is a hammer, everything is a nail.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94accordsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When all you got is a hammer, everything is a nail. </TD></TR></TABLE>

LMFAO! I might have to steal that and put it in my sig....

 

Well, if you are lucky, its the starter/solenoid.

This also happens if the motor is seized. If it takes too much current for the starter to turn the motor over, what happens is that the solenoid contacts actually get sort of spot welded together.

The way to check if this is the case, which you should do before removing parts, is to put the car in neutral and turn it over with a wrench. If it turns over easy then the motor is obviously not seized, and its the solenoid. You can also feel the battery cables to see if they are getting really hot.