i have 97 civic ex,
the car has been good, no problems for the past month, which is when I bought it, except for the fact that I put a new alternator in about 3 weeks ago...anyway..it's been starting fine since then, but today I get in my car, and it doesn't start. It wasn't sounding like it's trying to start or anything. Just a clicking noise, and after that clicking noise, a weird deeper clicking sound came from where the glovebox is, somewhere in that area. I tried to jump it too, and that didn't work! This is some weird ****....what could it be? Any suggestions and help is greatly appreciated thanks

 

starter would be my first guess. and since it just happened to me a fried ecu would be my second guess.

 

Check the starter first.

 

Wait before you check the starter, check your negative battery terminal!!!

This same thing happened to me, I swapped out starters with a friend, and then I took the battery post off to charge the battery and noticed all this corrosion on there that kept the battery from receiving a charge.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by euroborn1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have 97 civic ex,
the car has been good, no problems for the past month, which is when I bought it, except for the fact that I put a new alternator in about 3 weeks ago...anyway..it's been starting fine since then, but today I get in my car, and it doesn't start. It wasn't sounding like it's trying to start or anything. Just a clicking noise, and after that clicking noise, a weird deeper clicking sound came from where the glovebox is, somewhere in that area. I tried to jump it too, and that didn't work! This is some weird ****....what could it be? Any suggestions and help is greatly appreciated thanks</TD></TR></TABLE>

Manual or automatic?

 

my car did that and it was just a bad battary clocking sounds lights went on fine. it just didnt have enough juice to start the car.

 

i don't get why it would be the battery, it has a new one, well it was in there a week before the old alternator went on me so the charge was low, but I put it on a charger when I put the new alternator in before I started the car....there is no corrosion on the battery at all, and i dunno if this would have ANYTHING to do with it, but the alternator belt is not tight enough I don't think, it seems like it loosend itself... The car is manual. is the ECU located over by the glove box? And where is the started located? I don't know jack shi-t about cars, but I'm slowly learning lol thanks for all the replies guys

 

run outside power ont he car where lights ar eon but dont turn it all the way on like you would to start it but tell me if your windshield whippers move normal speed or are moving slower then normal if they are moving slower then normal your battery is dead or to low to start up the car

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kr0nic1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">run outside power ont he car where lights ar eon but dont turn it all the way on like you would to start it but tell me if your windshield whippers move normal speed or are moving slower then normal if they are moving slower then normal your battery is dead or to low to start up the car </TD></TR></TABLE>

^this is a good idea.

to answer your questions, a loose belt would cause this problem if that is the alternator belt. the ecu is next to the glove box on the kick panel. starter is located on the tranny (left side of engine if looking at it with hood open) kind of underneath the intake manifold. has a bunch of wires running to it and looks like a cylinder.

 

i just got the battery tested and it's good...so thats out of the picture...i doubt its the starter because the person I bought the car from had a brand new one put in like 6 months ago, I have the receipt for it so they weren't lying. I checked my negative battery wire to see if it's lose anywhere but everything is tight....What would the car do if the ECU is bad? one of the clicks is coming from where the ECU is....so it's a high possibility??

 

b

 

what about the connection to the starter?

 

not trying to threadjack, but a loose alt belt would cause a car not to start??? cuz i took mine off and put it back on, and now it wont start?!!?!

 

hmm that's weird... i don't think that it has anything to do with it

 

Check all your grounds. Starter is my guess due to the "clicking". Before you go out and either take it off or even worse, buy a new one. Try hitting it with a deadblow hammer, this happened to me and i got it to work for a couple of months before I had to replace it. Goodluck with your car man.

 

which part of the starter should I hit and how hard should I hit it? I don't wanna [freak] it up and end up finding out that it's not the starter....

and- if it is the starter, how hard is it to take out and put in a new one?

 

Maybe it's dry solder in your main relay that turns on the fuel injectors which isn't working. Had this problem in my 93 Civic and is easy to fix:

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainrelay.html

 

still not starting---f-u-c-k--bump

 

big news..i tried to push start the car, and bam there is goes firing up like a champ lol...drove it to autozone to see if they can test my starter but they said i gotta take it out for them to test it... so i drove it back home and turned it off, and tried to start it again and it clicked like before, then i turned it again and it started up....one of the dudes at autozone said it could be bad connections on the starter like they could be dirty or something...

 

problem solved, one of the connections on the starter was lose, it's like that clamp that goes on to the starter and you have to take pliers to it to make it tight, whatever that's called...

anyways, thanks for all the help and responses everyone!

 

your welcome.

 

If it was the black wire that goes to the starter then it was your ground wire. Im glad its running like a champ now!