When I insert my key and turn it all the way the fuel pump primes. When I attempt to crank it over it dies completely. If I attempt it again nothing turns on and nothing happens like the car/battery is completely dead. If I come back and do it a bit later it repeats itself (fuel pump primes, attempt to start, dies,...stays dead).
I looked up some stuff about the main relay and I have been inspecting the solder (I am an electronics technician) but I don't see any micro-cracking on the solder points in the main relay. Is there a way to test it while it's out of the vehicle?

 

bump ...I forgot how fast this forum moves

 

this might sound stupid, but did you replaced the battery?

 

Ok my friend i want you to make sure all your motor grounds are good and the tranny ground sometimes they come loose or the wire gets messed up i seen it before i just replaced all of mine this week just for somethin to do and the starter wire check it wiggle it just go over all the things that help start the car and you can always jump the starter to if it wont work then starter is bad hope that helps a lil

 

This might actually be what it is because I attempted to turn on the headlights and nothing happened except for the interior light going out.

 

Battery is good...steady at 12.52v

 

is one of the cables popping off of a terminal on the battery? perhaps the key tumbler is broken... there's a lot of things that could be happening. can you push start the car?

 

I had the same exact problem but it sounded like water was in my motor try letting somebody jump u for awhile and keep pumping gas and turn it over let em jump u for like 25 mins or something

trust me it'll work if u got the same probelm as me =]

 

There isn't any water in my motor...I know that for sure. I don't need jumped...my battery is at 12.52 volts.

 

Do you have any alarms installed or anything like that?

 

Just re-flow the joints on the main relay to be sure it's not a cold/cracked joint. Yes, there is a way to test the main relay out of the car if you have a meter, a voltage source and some jumper leads. If you have a meter that has a min/max function, hook it up to your battery, throw it on 'min' and try and start the car. What does the voltage drop to?

Your ignition switch could also be another culprit as there was a recall on certain model Civic's (96-00 models, I believe) for it. Basically you could start the car but as soon as you released the key to let it swing back to 'run', the engine would cut off.

I'm an electrical engineer and work out in Germantown. If you're near there or Severn, I could lend a hand.

 

Well its possible to have volts but no CCA. I had this issue before, it was a loose ground. And the bad ground had killed the battery. I charged the battery and fixed the ground and I was good. And yes it was literally the same exact problem. I wont bother explaining why it goes dead for a minute or 2 after trying to crank it, since your a electronics technician you already know why

 

The battery may have 12.52v but is it sustaining it? It could be bad, if its good then id check for spark, if you have spark then id check your ecu

 

Just to kind of bring this back from the dead. The next day my car started with no issues. I'm going to be replacing the master relay due to the fact that this is a classic indication of the master relay having issues.