Hey,

I was wondering if anyone can help me out by letting me know why my freshly swapped B20Z in my EF runs great when the car is worm, but when I let it sit over night outside, and come back to start it the next morning all I hear is a click in the ECU and nothing more. Engine wont turn over, but the lights work.

 

what does this click sound like. there are many different clicks that can happen when talking about electrical. i know my starter wire vibrates loose every now and then. then there is the main relay that can go bad. need to be a little more descriptive.

 

ECU flashes one red light and clicks every time i try to turn it over, so it is coming from the computer, but not sure why it does that?

 

For got to mention too that when i turn the key all the way to start the engine the started wont do anything, but im positive that everything on the starter is tight..

 

i would check all your grounds.....and again make sure the bolt is tight on the starter for the cable and the other almost like slip on piece is on, i remember when mine came off i shut the car off filled it with gas went to start up and nothing i was messing around with it for like 30min till i saw that wire just hanging there.

 

What other grounds are there? I have the one on the tranny and on the head..

 

check the ground on the thermostate housing that is a important ground aswell, but the clicking you are hearing sounds more like the main relay, and a bad ground will cause that.

The same thing happened to me and i actually thought that the relay was bad but ended up just being the battery ground was loose so double check!

 

Ok.. I will check on that hopefully tonight, I forgot to mention too that when the car is sitting outside over night in 15 degree weather, when I try to start it, it usually makes that clicking in the ecu but sometimes the motor will start right up after turning the key off and on repeditively

 

Your starter is mostlikely about to go bad. My starter was doing the same thing..it'll just click. I replaced it and problem solved. It mostly did it on very cold nights.

 

The clicking is coming from the ecu and not the starter

 

The clicking is coming from the actual ecu on the passenger floor board?

 

yep... not to sure why its doing that! I also checked the ground by the thermostat and that seems to be good ground..

 

Can someone tell me how to check to see if the main relay is good or bad?

 

I'd be checking your ECU - open the case and take a look

or see if you can get another ecu to try for a couple days...

 

It would be better to try your ecu in another car rather then risk messing up another ecu if faulty wiring is to blame. but i really dont think an ecu is to blame it sounds more like a bad or weak ground or symtoms of starter, but you say the click is coming from the ecu???, you sure its just not a realy your hearing??, The main relay clicks on with the key on and clicks back off after 2 sec.

 

well the starter is on the other side of the firewall where the ecu is, i dont think theres anything in the ecu that will make that click sound....main relay is near the change pocket thing on the driver side above the hood release, so its probably not that if the sound is coming from the ecu side....

 

IF you fuel pump primes, your main relay and ecu are good.
IF your fuses in both fuse boxes are good and you have no wiring issues( ground etc), your starter is bad, replace that ****.

 

Thanks for the inputs I will make sure to check things over again.So yea I pushed my car in the garage today and let it sit for an hour or so and boom it starts right up like it has a mind of its own... no clicking under steering wheel... but why would the starter work only when its in a warmer inviorment??

 

try known good battery

sounds like you may have a dead cell or something causing you not to get **** for power in cold environments....

 

when i had a bad starter on my old 91 4 door it would always give me problems in cold weather and not so much when it was hot out.... i honestly dont know why but it did.

 

I think there should be a multimeter in all of your cars.

 

I found that clicking its coming from behind my cd player, and not from my ecu. Its a little black rectangle relay it has denso 12V written on it. I checked all the grounds over again and their solid, and I just bought a new battery. I guess the next step is to replace the starter. Thanks again for the help h-t.