I tried to start my car outside of the mall tonight and it wouldnt start.

I dont hear the starter making any noise.. so i figure its that..
The little ground wire didnt look like it was makin good contact, so i crimped it better, checked the fuse.. but still no go.

So, I push/clutch started the car figuring its just the starter.

Im sitting at a traffic light... glance down at my cluster.. see the temp gauge at H.. all the way up.. So i immedietly pulled into a parking lot and shut down.
I pop the hood and everything seems like its at normal temp.. the radiator cap wasnt even that hot... Now i was confussed as hell..

So i clutch start it again too see if the fan would go on, ect... just basically watch everything.. When i get in the car, the temp is back down to normal.. So i give it a little gas, and instently the temp gauge goes back up.

The more gas i give, the higher the temp gauge goes... On the highway crusing in 5th, the temp gauge is all the way up, but when i put down the clutch/rpms go down, so does the temp gauge..
Also when i put up the windows when i got home tonight, they def went up slower than normal.

So now im thinkin alternator..

However, i didnt have jumper cables so i tried swapping in a battery i knew was good, and it still didnt start.

Could it also be the starter???

Thanks for readin all this ****!!

 

bump

 

does your radio work while your headlights are on? did the car feel like it was dying? did u check ur oil? is it like milky? any smoke? check coolant? what was the ride home like?

 

the oil is fine.. no smoke at all that i have seen, and my boy was even behind me for a little while.. (it was night tho so maybe hard to tell)
The only problem on the ride home, was the idle.. It was a little rough, but constant.. it would vibrate every 2 seconds or so.

U thinkin headgasket??
colant was reg color and the oil looked like reg mobile 1 5w

no CEL. Radio worked fine (its a in dash LCD) but the volume did seem a little weak, esp as i got closer to my house. (Bout 20 min ride home)

morning bump!

also... the AC wasnt that cold at all, normally its pretty good

 

bump ^

 

I hate to type this again as a fix but. Ground wiring willcause all sorts of problems. check all your gorunds. the one from the frame to the trans, fram to the head ect. check a the power wiring from the battery to the starter including the signal wire on the starter. If any of them look ? change them with new ones

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by instructor74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I hate to type this again as a fix but. Ground wiring willcause all sorts of problems. check all your gorunds. the one from the frame to the trans, fram to the head ect. check a the power wiring from the battery to the starter including the signal wire on the starter. If any of them look ? change them with new ones</TD></TR></TABLE>

ground wires are fairly new.. wires look good...

bump

 

bump ^^

 

bump b4 bed... harness maybe??

 

bump 1 last time tonight... no1 has any ideas 4 me

 

ttt

 

t

 

tttttt

 

bump b4 work

 

Regardless of your alternator, if a car has a fresh battery and a bad alternator, your car will start. If the battery you knew was good was sitting around on the ground, it probably isn't good anymore. You should either go buy a voltmeter or multimeter at a parts store and check the voltage of that battery. Once you get the car started on a good battery or jumper cables, then check the voltage of the battery again, if it's lower than ~13v while running, your alternator is bad. Remeber that the alternator just charges the battery, it doesn't provide the stored charge to start the car.

 

next time you bump start it... take the battery cable off once it is running. see what happens. if the alternator is bad the car should shut off.

someone correct me if i am wrong, but the battery is only used to start the car, nothing else. your car electronics all run off the alternator.

i could be totally wrong, but thats what i think. do that and see what happens. as for the overheating issue;

does your fan kick on?
when you put the heat on full blast, does the temp drop?
did you burp the system after you opened it up?

i had the same kind of overheating problem. ended up being my Tstat.

 

You are correct. Check the ground on the thermostat housing. also on the sid eof the head by the vtec solenoid the little stereo jack looking plug for the coolant temp.

as for telling you about your alt. unless you have an amps meter ( the one on a multimeter isnt high enough they are only 15-20 amps you need one that goes to 120 or so) sears has one for like 20 bucks. but then you can take it to sears or somewhere have them do a charging system check and that will tell you whats going on.

 

even if u have new ground wires... if the mounting area has alot of rust or corosion that could also cause something.. but i would check the battery first or take it to honda for a free battery test!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek9bmxer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">even if u have new ground wires... if the mounting area has alot of rust or corosion that could also cause something.. but i would check the battery first or take it to honda for a free battery test!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

my car wouldnt start when the ground on the Tstat was loose. i had to wiggle it around. after a while i realized the bolt snapped. easy fix

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Quik Chris &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Regardless of your alternator, if a car has a fresh battery and a bad alternator, your car will start. If the battery you knew was good was sitting around on the ground, it probably isn't good anymore. You should either go buy a voltmeter or multimeter at a parts store and check the voltage of that battery. Once you get the car started on a good battery or jumper cables, then check the voltage of the battery again, if it's lower than ~13v while running, your alternator is bad. Remeber that the alternator just charges the battery, it doesn't provide the stored charge to start the car. </TD></TR></TABLE>

well i know the battery i tried was good b/c it was brand new.

So maybe the starter is bad also.

The real reason why i thjought the alternator was bad is b/c of the wierd temp gauge action.. and when i got home that night the windows went up slow as hell..

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek9bmxer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">even if u have new ground wires... if the mounting area has alot of rust or corosion that could also cause something.. but i would check the battery first or take it to honda for a free battery test!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

the trans and valve cover ground are good, in perfect condition.
As for the battery, like i said... i tried a BRAND new one.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by robbieshonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You are correct. Check the ground on the thermostat housing. also on the sid eof the head by the vtec solenoid the little stereo jack looking plug for the coolant temp.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pearl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

my car wouldnt start when the ground on the Tstat was loose. i had to wiggle it around. after a while i realized the bolt snapped. easy fix </TD></TR></TABLE>

that sounds like a good idea... ill check the tstat ground.. where exactly is the ground wire at for the tstat... ill also check the little sterieo jack ur talkin about.

If ur car wouldnt start when the ground was messed up, and my temp gauge is going crazy maybe this explains it. and like i said.. i dont think the car was really overheating... when i popped the hood everything seemed fine.. and yes the fan was on.

thanks for the posts fellas.. ill try some of this out tomorrow.

 

its right on the top of the tstat. i ended up just putting it on my starter mount somewhere. youll find it if you have half a brain

the only thing is that when the ground would be bad, it would end up shutting the car off. whenever i slammed gears it would rattle loose for a second. so this might not be your problem.

 

hmm well.. i guess its worth a try.... i wana try to get it started tomorrow and take the battery off so i can see if the alt is working regardless....

it looks like the only way to start it is to push start it.. so i know theres also somethin up with the starter... maybe the starter relay??\

that still doesnt explain why it idled rough, the ac didnt work for ****, and the windows took an hour to go up

 

bump for you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RedLine8200 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bump for you.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

did u check the actuall ground/power wire to the starter? like i mean from battery to starta and chasis to starter? also u can test your start by taking a wire and just jump the ground and positive if thers power it should turn over. also u may want to check your clutch safty switch. or make sure your fully in.