Hi, So I'm moving to western NC right now. Last week I was driving from a meeting with the people I'm buying a house from to a job interview when my oil light came on. SO I stopped and saw that there was a pretty impressive puddle forming under the car. Went to closest auto parts store, added two quarts, went to the interview, made it back to the friends house where I'm staying without the oil light coming back on. The next day I took off the "engine stiffener plate" (on the 4 cylinder only I think) felt a lot of oil in there where the flywheel is, presumably confirming a rear main seal failure. I'm moving here from Florida so I wonder if driving in the mountains caused the failure.
So I found a mechanic who says he can do the seal for 550 in labor this Thursday/Friday. Yesterday I had another job interview 6 miles from where I'm staying and figured I would just top off the oil before leaving and again in the parking lot of the business. I went out to leave and the car failed to start!

I WANT to say that the first time I cranked it, I may have heard a weak ignition or backfire like PUH, but its mostly just doing the slow groaning sound like the battery is dead. I put the multimeter on the battery and it read something like 6 volts. Later, I put the multimeter on it again and the multimeter wigged out - at one point it read 0.6v, then 12.6, then 18v for a second, and it would build up slowly to whatever reading it was getting. I put the same multimeter on my friends battery and of course it read normal and registered immediately. Used my friend's truck to try to jump the car and absolutely no difference with the cables on or off. Had my friend look at the drive belt when I cranked it to make sure the engine wasn't seized and the belt does turn. The starter/solenoid is almost brand new and is dry, there is not oil in around the spark plugs.

Any ideas? I'm hesitant to just leave it with a mechanic I don't know with a mystery problem because as I said, I'm buying a house and looking for a job and really don't have any money left. If there's any repair I can do myself with the basic tools I have available then I'll need to do that. Of course I'm not equipped to pull or dismantle the motor or transmission. I did pick up a repair manual.

 

Have you tried bypassing the battery completely and just jumping it off the other car without that bad battery in involved.

Sounds like the oil issue is only part of your problem.

 

Check for Fuel and Fire... is there spark at the plugs and fuel getting into the cylinders.

Pull the number 1 spark plug and ground it to part of the engine away from the open spark plug hole. Engine mount usually works pretty good. Have someone crank the engine over and watch for bright white spark at the gap of the plug and a mist of fuel coming out of cylinder No.1 spark plug hole.

If you don't have bright spark - test ignition components
If you don't see fuel mist - check fuel system

main relay and all the engine grounds would be a good place to start

 

Good morning, thanks for chiming in.

99stockcivic: I just went out and tried jumping it with the bad battery completely disconnected but it didn't produce different results. The bad battery is currently reading about 17.5v but like yesterday it gradually registers up to this number over about 30 seconds, starting from nill.

ghostaccord: The thing is that its cranking so poorly that I can't get this idea out of my head that the oil is creating a short somewhere that is sapping power from the starter. I mean, that idea isn't exactly an educated one but - it's more like the starter motor isn't getting enough power to turn the flywheel with the proper energy to start the combustion cycle. See what I mean? Do you still think I should start by checking for fuel and spark, like you said?

 

A 12 volt battery will never read more than 13.1 volts (typically 12.8) unless the vehicle is running. If it is staring at 0v and increasing to 17.5 more than likely it is only millivolts. Replace the battery, even jumping from another vehicle wont supply the amperage needed to start if the current battery is shorted internally and unless you are using welding cable for jumpers, typical cables won't hold the amperage needed either if there is no battery installed.

 

Even when running, about 14.5 is as high a voltage as one should normally see. 17 is out of range and makes no sense.

You could have a bad starter or solenoid at this point, or poor grounds.

The battery sounds bad, but it also sounds like something else there, especially since you bypassed the battery.

With your theory, and running with it, you could have a truly damaged piston, block, crank, bearings, or something that is putting a lot of friction on the rotating mass.

You could test this by trying to rotate the engine manually. Pull the plugs to make this easier, and crank the engine around, it shouldn't be very hard with worn motor. If you can't, then I think you might have found a direction to look further into. I was able to spin my motor around fairly easily with a long socket wrench, I did not need a giant breaker bar (for reference).