96 Integra LS 100% stock.

Car would start and run normal. Random times after turning off the car, I was not able to start it again.

I turned the key all the way. No sound, lights, chimes, or crank. Complete silent. Car at this point has NO POWER to ANYTHING. Ex: headlights, horn, radio, dome light, instrumental lights all has NO POWER.

When this happen, I took a reading on my battery, it reads 12-13volts. The battery was purchased less than a year and I had it tested at autozone, they stated it's still holds a charge and is good.

Terminals are clean and no corrosion.

I always end up putting the key in turn to II, back to I and to II back and forth until it randomly gets power and starts as normal.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Do you have an alarm? My coworker had a similar problem, turns out it was his alarm. He had to remove the immobilizer part which connected to the starter and it worked again.

BTW he can still use the alarm to shut/open doors, just the immobilizer part stopped working.

 

a problem that leaves all power from the vehicle removed has only a few possibilities.
firstly, check the chassis to battery ground cable and connection to see that it's secure.
there should be a main power wire going to the under hood fuse panel, leading to probably a 100amp fuse. check the fuse by checking for power at and immediately after the fuse. this way you're checking the fuse and checking for power at the fuse at the same time

 

I do have one. I followed the entire alarm system and took it all out. None of the OEM wires were cut or damage except one thicker black wire under the steering column. That one thicker black wire was cut with both ends connected to a black box. When I removed the box and all the alarm wires its looks like OEM and everything is where it should be except that one thicker black wire, it was cut. I tried starting the car with the thick black wire remaining cut, no sound or start. So I connected the two ends of the thick black wire back together and the car starts up like normal.

I drove it for about 30 minutes and got home. In that 30 minutes, the car was turned off and on 2 times. Both times worked. When I got home and turned off the car, the power went out again.

It's sitting in my driveway at the moment.

Thank you for your input, please let me know if I removed the alarm system correctly.

 

Thank you for your input. I will check this out tomorrow when there is some daylight and take some pictures and get back with you.

 

well there's an interesting piece of the puzzle. how did you reconnect the wire? i'd go back and check that connection. maybe it became disconnected or shorted and blew a fuse. check all your fuses as well

 

I second this approach.

 

Ditto the above^^^

Batt. to chassis ground and chassis to engine ground, batt. to engine bay fuse box and main fuse.

It must be either a main ground or the main power connection to lose all power, it can't be anything else, main ground connection failure is common on older Honda/Acura.

DO NOT just eyeball these connections, redo them, disconnect/clean/reconnect. 94

 

I crimped it together. It looks and feels secure. If there was a bad connection between these wires would it cause power lost to everything in the car?

 

In a word, no.

There are two (2) black leads running off the ign. switch, black/white is the starter lead and black/yellow is the ign. lead, neither one of there, [if cut] woud cut all power to the car.

If the starter lead, black/white, was cut the starter motor would not work.
If the ign. lead, black/yellow, was cut, the starter motor would work but engine woul not start.

Even if both were cut, you would still have head/park lights, dome lights, hazard lights, horn.

As I mentioned the only thing that would cut all power is a bad main ground or main power, [or a dead batt., that you say is not the problem].

Do you have 12V test light, or can you borrow one?

If not, go and buy one, there are a few simple tests you can do to determine the problem. 94

 

ahh yes. my bad. early morning post.
but yes, op, a simple 2$ 12v test light will suffice in finding the culprit here, and quick

 

I checked for continuity at the cut on both start lead and ignition lead wires and both showed good continuity.

I checked battery voltage, shows 12+ volts.

The ground from battery terminal to chassis did not show to have continuity. I replaced the ground and everything seems to work so far.

I'll keep you guys updated if anything fails again. But thank you everyone for your inputs and suggestions.

 

there ya go, bud. but for next time, ESPECIALLY when testing battery cables, do not test resistance. voltage drop testing is much more accurate. resistance testing is only useful for testing for open circuitchecks (which you were lucky enough to have as the culprit this time). it doesn't portray how the circuit will react under load, which is key. you always want to try and test anything in action, whenever possible. that's why even a simple 12v test light can work great. because it puts a load on the circuit

 

resistance checks are just as important with certain components it's what service procedures( for those who follow them) state to test for. resistances change with temp so some components will act up when hot compared to cold or vise versa. now let the flamming begin crapitan.

 

anyone who has even a basic understanding of electrical theory knows that resistance testing is ****. yes, ****. now let me school you on why that is, kid. and hopefully you'll actually retain something from this.
for starters, resistance testing is never performed on a live circuit. that fact alone makes it ****. secondly, and actually a carry over from the first reason, resistance testing proves absolutely **** all of the integrity of a circuit. you could have one strand of a wire left and that resistance test would still show the same as a wire that was unscathed. and of course, that one strand IN A LIVE CIRCUIT would not be capable of flowing amperage. all resistance testing does is throw out a very very small amount of current. the meter then measures the voltage drop across the 2 leads and calculates it as resistance. that tiny amount of current can flow across the one wire strand easily. but put a load on that circuit and it will certainly fail.
so. to recap; resistance testing is **** because testing should always be performed on a live circuit, in action.
also, again, if you knew anything about electrical theory, you'd know that true resistance can be calculated when voltage drop testing by using ohms laws simple formula.

no flaming here, kid. that's not my character. just throwing out a little education for those who care to listen