Hey everyone,

So the story goes that my old room-mate took off to South America for a while, leaving behind her 90 Civic DX Wagon. Anyways, she lent the vehicle to a friend, and the thing used to have problems where it just wouldn't start sometimes, and then mystically it would start again...


I figured it was the starter, and it appeared damn easy to remove so I pulled it. Took it to an auto parts place, they tested it and the damn thing is perfect. Alright, that's good news... except where the heck is the problem?


Anyways, a few questions I suppose:

1- Is there a common issue like this with Honda's that may shine some helpful light on the situation?

2- What other places should I consider looking?

3- Say it's an electrical gremlin or something in the ignition that I don't want to deal with. Is it realistic to just remove the starter from the ignition circuit, and put it on it's own custom push button hidden inside the car, or what issues would I encounter in doing this?

 

This model often sees the Main Relay fail, it bolts near the kick guard in front of the drivers door (you'll have to look under there to see it), run a search on the tech forums and you'll find more details about where it's located.

This is probably the most common cause of intermittent starting problems. Especially during hot weather.

 

Sweeeeet that's actually exactly what I was looking for. I'll check that tomorrow, and see about replacing it. Think it's a common enough part for most auto parts places?

 

I'm not sure, it only cost me 35$ new from Honda when i replaced mine.

 

I replaced mine today just for the hell of it and to make sure that it won't fail for awhile. Got it from honda for 17.44 lol