Hi I own a 96 honda accord ex and I just had new engine put in. It's the same engine 2.2 Vtec SOHC. My brother put it in for me, but it's having some electrical problems. All the dash lights will stay on with no key in, the heater will blow, it seems like everything is wired to the battery. I have a brand new battery in it and it keeps dying. Any suggestions or somewhere to start. Thanks

Justin from Michigan

 

it does seem like everything is wired to the battery. i recently did the swap by "myself" and all the electrical connectors should be plug-and-play for the most part. make your brother back-track the electrical connectors.

 

Are all the electrical connections buried under the dash? My bro lives about 200 miles away. Where should I start looking?

 

with my swap, i didnt have to mess with any wires located inside the car, mostly messed with wires in the engine bay, except wiring up ecu on passenger floor board. main wire i dealt with was the engine harness, then certain plugs had to be spliced from original harness to fit new/different plugs on harness. when i bought my motor, it came with the complete harness for it, but the ends were cut-off.

you probably have a short or something.

when your brother did the swap, he didnt need to mess with any wires inside the car such as the dash and such. like me, the main thing he would have messed with would have been the engine harness.

 

check for stuck\shorted relays

 

Does your car have an alarm???

 

Check all the fuses.

 

Check all your grounds and connections to make sure you don't have a short or an open circuit somewhere.

 

I don't have a car alarm. Thanks for all the help. I'll check all the fuses first I suppose. Not sure where the relays are. Can you guys give me some pointers on how to check for shorts? I'm a little overwhelmed.

 

the other thing is you could disconnect the ignition switch and ohm it ou with a meter to see if the ignition switch itself has shorted

 

heres an easy start: take a multimeter or a test light, ground one lead and see if theres power coming off the accesory or ignition wires when the key is off. If you cant get a diagram, there should only be one wire that has power with the key off, and thats the battery power wire. If you got more then one wire with power, your ignition switch is bad. To make sure it is, unlug the connector to the switch and if everything shuts off the switch was bad. If it dont, the problem is elsewhere. Let me know and ill see if I can help you out more.