HOW TO CLEAN YOU'RE SWITCH
All General Integra's and Honda's

Problems to look for
speedo went to zero immediately.
The starter motor would work just fine and get the motor up to about 1500 rpm quickly, but as soon as you released the start detente, the motor would just die. you tried to restart numerous times always with the same result.
The Wipers, mirrors, windows, ventilation fan, power roof and indicator lights also would not work.
Horn, Headlights and instrument lights did work.
Car starts at the 3rd point but shuts off when you let go.
Car will start but dies at random and takes a long time to start back up.

Tools needed:
Fine sandpaper
Clear silicone
4 small flat head drivers
and patience


The first thing you need to do is to take the 2 bolts off so you can get to the switch.
Now i cleaned my switch in side the car but taking it out will be way faster.


Now that you have it out,slowly on clip the tabs. Try not to snap them. Put the small flat heads in each clip.


After you have it apart,look out because there are 4 springs in side with little sliders.This is what it looks like apart



Now take off the first slide and springs.And the other one.



Now there are humps on the tabs that make the connection when you turn the key.See how black they are? With a light sand paper,clean them off.



Now you need to clean the other half of the switch.You can see what im talking about.

Now to put it back together. The springs are all the same size so just put them in there spot. P.S i slightly stretched mine just a tad to be safe. Start with putting the spring in and after put the big slider in and then the small one. They only go in 1 way.
Now with the cap,i put just a small amount of silicone on the in side to keep gunk and moister out.
Add up the tabs to there spot and slowly snap it together.



And that's it.

 

hmm I guess this is what happened to my car on a Friday several years ago when it died on the side of the road. I was too far from my house so had it towed to a local shop where it sat over the weekend. Did some research here on H-T and found out it was the ignition switch, which I assumed had just fried, I thought because of the alarm starter kill splice work on the ignition wires.

Anyway I just had a new ignition switch harness overnighted to me for about $65 total, put it on myself in the shop's lot, and was on my way.

Symptoms were exactly what you described above with the engine starting but immediately dying, and anything on the ignition circuit not working (windows, wipers, etc). I actually held my car in the start position and closed the sunroof while the engine was cranking.

 

Lol that had to suck. Sorry i didn't post this sooner. Yeah i had to drive 5 miles holding the key so the car would stay running. I didn't have the money to get a new switch and so i rebuilt it. Simple to do and only takes an hour or 2.

 

So you cranked the starter for 5 miles? Time to rebuild that starter now

 

lol no. I just had to hold the key barely turning it just to keep it running but not where the starter was on.

 

Nice write up and that has to suck holding the key for that long. Reminds me of holding the key in those dolls back, back in high school(had to do it twice in one year bc I switched schools midway through).

 

What's up man..you responded to my post on nwp4life

Well, I only had 1 of those problems..today I went to start my car and it died right after I let go of the key but it started fine right after.

Everything works on my car it's just that on the highway the other day my speedo and tach dropped to zero and car started to bog down. I'm thinking it might be the MAP sensor since my teacher kinda explained how it worked and how it looks for load and determines that amount of fuel or what ever.

Anyone know to check a MAP sensor w/ a volt meter??

 

Id say check the main fuel relay and or pump. But i think its the switch. My car would start and stay running at times but just shut off at random tell that one day it didn't want to stay running unless i held the key a little past to running point.

 

Hey man, my car died on me after I let go of the key I was lucky tho, I was in the parking lot w/ little to no light trying to jump the starter w/ a friend (his idea to jump, got no clue what im doing) but I decided to give it another go and it started up.

Looks like i'll be ripping it apart this weekend. but is it necessary to use the silicone? Any little tips ya got for doing this? I just hope I can get it all back together lol.

And if this doesn't work what should I checking next?

 

The silicone is to keep moister out,that's all. If cleaning don't work,you might have to go buy another switch.

 

DARN IT!!!! yOU BEAT ME TO IT!!!!

I was in the process of writing one up...I was having the same issues, and in order for me to keep the car in acc, was I turned the key back a little. I took it all apart like you did, but instead of fine sand paper, I used green scotch brite..Its not so rough as sand paper, but its mandable.

 

LMAO!!! You snooze you loose..

 

yeah, oh well. You win.

 

hey, your pics don't work man!!!

I took mine apart and it looked alright but one tab looked like it had some kind of build up. So i sanded it down lightly and it still has that cutting off problem.

Also would the ign switch cause my windows to not work and clock and turn signals??

 

^ I followed the same steps here, and now mine works....It just tells you how to clean it, but after your done cleaning it and it still doesn't work, then you need a new switch.

If your not in ACC(were your instrumental lights up with all of your deals and the ding, ding,), then yes, it won't allow your windows, and things to work.

 

thanks. But how are you suppose to know if it needs to be cleaned? Like I said mine looked pretty much. I sanded it slightly since I had rough sandpaper and kinda wiped off the black stuff.

 

can someone find resistant values of the ign switch??

 

There should be no resistance, [full continuity].

Here is a pretty good DIY... http://techauto.awardspace.com/ignitionswitch.html

one more... http://www.visualimpressions.ca/switch/ 94

 

thanks for the links they were really helpful. I'm gonna order a new switch 2morrow.

All power and continuity checks out so I believe it's the switch

 

ok this is a bit of a necro-post but my 1996 Integra would run fine but the accessories would shut off whilst driving and I would have to "shake" my key to get everything to turn back on, hit a bump and boom off again. So I finally remembered seeing this a while back and took off my switch but since I was at the gf house no tools or zip ties so I unscrewed the switch and took it apart still basically on car. Also since I was at the gf house, no sand paper or green scrubby (which later she told me where it was) I found #2 pencil and used the eraser to clean the contacts. Put everything back together and it works great so far, I will post an update after driving for a while.

 

I sanded down the main metal contact points (on the black housing) as a temporary fix. It would fix it temporarily and then car would shut off once again, and also hard time starting. so then i sanded it more... I noticed I had just one faulty contact point, the one where the all white wire is connected to. It would always build up a burnt/heated residue on just that one contact point. It got so bad that my car was shutting off almost every 30 min.

I used 320 grit, and probably should have used 800+
I don't recommend sanding the contact points, as I realized they are actually specially coated for electrical connectivity. I sanded mine to bare metal and couldn't start my car.

I found an easier way to replace this without removing the whole entire ignition switch. The main switch has 6 big wires. These 6 wires lead to 2 seperate plugs connected under the dash. first plug has 3 wires, the other plug has the rest of the 2 wires connected with other wires in the plug. What i did was, i remove the 2 wires from the plug individually, this allowed me to remove the complete main switch that has the 6 wires total. You can easily swap another one that is working.

To remove the 2 wires from the plug (white wire, and black wire with white stripe), first you must remove the white piece inside the plug, then use a very small metal pry tool to bend the tab inside to remove the wire individually.



Edit: just realized this is acura section, it might be the same for eg switch

 

Eh, I replaced my sisters ignition switch instead. It was cleaned before but it was still giving her problems.