My car has been having an electrical problem lately. Key goes into ignition. Into ON position and sometimes everything is normal with oil pressure light, brake light, and battery light. Others the brake light is brightly lit as usual but the oil pressure light, battery light and check engine light are extremely dimly lit or off altogether. From there trying to turn the car on(clutch in) and no response, yet when i release the clutch a click is heard to the left of the speedo behind it in the dash. Also a sort of rapid click/spudder occasionally. Sometimes with shaking the car power temporarily returns but then goes back to its usual. I believe the problem/sound is coming from this relay due to its location. Anyone know what relay this is? Or what my problem may be?
Car is a 92 civic hatch VX, d16y7/y8 minime running obd1 p28.
Oh and main relay is good. I tested it with a good one from autozone and 3 backups i have.



This is like directly behind the driver side left most a/c vent. I unplugged the connector for the picture.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Test the ignition switch.

 

I'll look up how to test the switch and I'll post my findings asap.

 

Everything tested out good right now. Then again my dash has full power right now so its like if the problem isn't even there. Its only sometimes. Seems to be when my car shakes it restores power sometimes and/or loses it.

 

Sounds like a loose wire if shaking fixes the problem or makes the problem known.

 

That was my guess. But wouldn't that also keep my car from running properly? Once started it runs fine. Well besides my nearly overheating but thats because of a coolant leak.

 

Test the switch when the problem is happening. That's the only time when the tests yield useful information.

 

That's what I'm planning on doing, but a post with that information may take a few days since i don't know when it happens until i see power loss in my gauge cluster.

 

There's no rush on this end.

 

Good point lol

 

It happened again today. No power to the dash except the brake light being on. Then i heard the main relay spuddering like crazy just making little clicking sounds. So i swapped it out with a backup one that i had and still nothing. My guess is the relay either isn't getting power or its gone bad?

 

FYI the relay in your first post is the clutch-in relay.

 

I've found the noise i was talking about earlier. Its the main relay making the clicking sound. So the clutch-in relay(thanks deschlong) seems to be fine by my guess. I'm just not sure what would cause the main relay to repeatedly click. The noise can be heard here. Got a little video of it.
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...2CD7CA048E.mp4

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...2CA6B20E19.mp4

 

Wrong code cut to paste images with. Use the [img] code, not the HTML code.

 

^ They are vids. Can those be embedded? Must check.

 

OP, what wiring was done to convert to the minime? Could that be something to investigate. It is unlikely that all of your main relays are bad.

 

Every other code i have tried won't let me embed so i always use the links for videos and IMG for images.

I got the car as a y8 running a chipped p28. Seems like a 92-95 ex intake mani. S20 trans. Ran fine except for a main relay problem when i got it. All i basically did was swap the y8 block(spun rod bearing) for a y7 block. Kept all else. Started up fine until this random problem.
I'll try another main relay tonight and hope for the best. The twitching is weird to me though. I'll borrow a 'new' relay from autozone to test it out. Not sure what else it could be.

Edit: I replaced the main relay when it had a crank no start problem.

 

Ooops. I don't think they can be. Youtube stuff embeds automatically.

 

If i remove the main relay and put the key into the ignition all lights stay on(CEL, oil pressure, battery) and the fuel pump doesn't prime. But as soon as i put the relay on(tried 2 used good ones and 1 brand new one) all the dash indicator lights faint out and the relay keeps clicking/twitching.

 

Is your battery low on charge?

 

That was my first thought. Brought it into my store and it was at 12.87volts and 78% charge. Fully charged it just in case and i decided to change out my old terminals to completely factor that out. I'll post what happens tonight or tomorrow morning. Gota make a trip from valencia to riverside and back first.

 

Changed terminals, took off every ground i could get my hands on and sanded it clean, then i retightened every single nut, bolt and wire i could find. Car started right up. Not sure if it was an intermittent ground, loose nut/bolt, super seized terminal, weak battery or something else. But its all good now. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
Thanks for everyones help who tried to help me figure this out. I really appreciate it.

 

^That feeling when you fixed your car and it was something as simple as that FTW.