I have a 98 ULEV Accord. I cleaned the EGR section of the intake. Started it up. It ran fine for a minute then died. I can hear the fuel pump power on. When I go to start it there is no clicking or cranking from the starter. I hear a soft pop sound from the passenger side dash and that is all. I have tried changing the ignition switch and charging the battery. The starter is getting 12 volts but won't do anything even after a light tapping. The headlights don't dim when I turn the key to the cranking position.

How can I get my car cranking?

 

Did you hook all the vacuum hoses back to the EGR valve? What I'm thinking is that it might be stuck open causing exhaust to go into the IM at idle, if that happens, the car will not idle. It'll sputter or die off at idle.

 

The issue I'm having is the car is not cranking. I took the starter to the store and they said it tested ok. I cleaned up the starter cables and now it turns over every 10th try. I tried a new ignition switch, but that didn't help. I looked at the main relay and didn't see any broken solder.

 

Thats odd. I need a wiring diagram to see how the wiring is wired up on this car. If anything, I'll let you know.

 

Check your ground cables near the intake area.

 

Yeah, but he said it'll only crank over every 10th time when he turns the key over which tells me that something isn't right with the first primary circuit of the starting system.

OP, check your ground wire at the transmission housing coming from the negative battery terminal. Make sure it's not corroded or anything. Even if you don't have the ground wire hooked up at the Intake Manifold, the engine will still crank over fine but just no spark.

 

I have now tried testing the voltage at the starter. I saw the voltage drop from normal ~12 to 4 volts which means a bad starter. I had the starter tested at the parts store and they said it was good. After I did a whole bunch of other work on trying to fix the problem I bought a new starter. The new starter works great.

Moral of the story: you can't trust the starter tester at the parts store.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

 

When a technician is diagnosing electrical problems, voltage drop is used more often than any other method of troubleshooting. Besides, of course, throwing parts at the car

 

^^x2! Hence why diagnosis is a must before removing any parts.