I just bought this 1994 Civic EX Coupe with 156k miles on it. I know the last owner took the shittiest care of it.

The car would start up fine before I bought it and was driven from Philly back to camden county with my friend following (about 20 miles or so)

When we got back to his house the car started once, and then not at all. There is nothing coming from the motor/starter it seems, but the lights work with a fine battery.

What the hell happened? How can I fix it?

 

if the light works.that means battery is good.try to hot wire to the starter and see if it turns over.if it turns over.then try tap on the main relay while u start the car, see if that works.if u dont know how to hot wire to the starter,u can pull the big red wire off from starter and then plug it back on.

 

It doesn't have a problem turning on, but the starter doesn't kick in at all. Only the lights in the vehicle come on

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slacks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It doesn't have a problem turning on, but the starter doesn't kick in at all. Only the lights in the vehicle come on</TD></TR></TABLE>
the best way to test a starter is to hot wire it.that way u will know for sure it is bad.and i had the same problem before, the lights and everything worked but starter wouldnt click or kick in.i hot wired it and turned out i needed a new one.so i replaced it and the car fires right up

 

i'll have to try that out tomorrow since the car is stuck at my friend's house.

How exactly would I hot wire it? never done it before :/