hey everyone, i have a 98 dx hatch with a b16. i was going to leave my girlfriend's house when the car wouldn't start. everything looked fine on my first attempt to start it, but i notice a glow from my aftermarket deck. so i guess the deck drained the battery.

i tried to push start it and then i noticed that the lights weren't turning on as i turned the key. so i figured the battery could be fully dead.

i got a new battery today and the car still wouldn't start. none of the lights turned on either, so i don't know now. all the fuses under the hood look ok. are there some other fuses that i should check? i looked at the starter fuse under the dash and it looks ok too.

could i also have a bad ground all of a sudden? it seems kind of weird to just have a ground go bad, but i guess it's a possiblity too. would a bad ground cause my car to not function at all?

TIA

 

do you know the new bat is good? check all the fuses

 

well...battery is brand new. lol but i guess i'll have to pull every fuse out to check them. i was hoping there was one or two that i should just really look for.

is there anything else i should look for after the fuses?

 

ttt

 

Thanks for all the information Is it cranking? Is it clicking? Can you turn on other electrical systems in the car? If you turn the key to turn it over, does everything that's on turn off?

Give us some information that means something.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Archidictus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for all the information Is it cranking? Is it clicking? Can you turn on other electrical systems in the car? If you turn the key to turn it over, does everything that's on turn off?

Give us some information that means something.</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol i said nothing works but here's some answers

no lights (headlights, dash, cluster. so looks like no power)
no cranking
no clicking
can't turn on lights, so can't turn on any other eletrical things (power door locks not working)
and nothing happens when i turn the key.

i checked the fuses under the hood, they look ok. ignition fuse looks fine, its actually a few months old only. the battery 100 fuse is a bit old, it has some smudge on the cover so it's kind of hard to see into it, but at an angle you can see the center metal piece still there. i think i might just replace it to see if it'll do anything.

**a few days ago i tried to jump the car and it wouldn't do anything either. after about 10 minutes, the cluster lights came on as i turned the key to on. as i try to start the car, the ground (from the battery to the body) sparked.

 

check for loose terminals on battery &lt;ground&gt; because my ground came loose even when i try to jump it it would make no difference .

 

yeah, i noticed my ground terminal was loose yesterday. like it was too big for my new battery. so i squeezed it down with some pliers. it's snugged now, but nothing happened. i'm wondering if the ground to the chassis is bad. i might move it and try another location.

 

bump

 

check ur ground and make sure there isnt **** on it. unscrew both side and scrap off the **** with a screwdriver.

 

yep check the bat connections

get a multimeter if you don't have one, you can get a great one for like $50 at sears

 

I know what it is, could be 1-6 things:

1. Battery(Ruled out to be OK)
2. Starter(Cranks over so OK)
3. Fuses(Blown fuse won't allow you to crank over)
4. Wire connection(If ash tray wire ant't connected, your going to have problems, but the main wire that gets shorted is the one under the carpet, its a connector that is brown next to the hood latch which connects the rear wire harness to the front. Wiggle it.)
5. ECU(Car will run like crap, then you know somethings up)
5. SRS Airbag(Rare, but if light is on, sometimes interfers with startup permeters with ECU, through fuse box)

Your situation:
I think its a wire problem. Wiggle the brown connector, turn the key until you here a clicking sound behind the dash, once you see all the engine lights and everything go off, turn the car on. I think their is a shorting in your wire harness. The clicking sound is crucial, its a check from the ecu to make sure the harness is ready to crank the car over. One slight shorting and your car won't crank.

Or could be that ash tray connector isn't grounded or connected. This prevents lights from coming on and the car not cranking.

 

i don't even know if the car cranks. right now it's just sitting ugly. lol but i will try to look for the brown plug. i bought this car rewired it's orginally obd2a and now it's obd2b. so i'm gonna have to look around under there.

could you be a bit more specific about the ash tray connector? where is it located? ek's don't have ashtrays....unless you're talking about the cigarette lighter?

thanks for the insight. i'm gonna work on it tomorrow.

 

this just happened to my civic!! all of a sudden the battery died and I had no power to the car. I got my gf's mom to jump me and it worked and I drove home, but now it has no power at all anymore. The car ran/runs fine and perfect it's just the battery issue going on.

I'd check the alternator cause the alternator is possibly not charging the battery at all.

 

turned out to be the ground wire. it's running now though just needs a new fuel filter i think.