So, my Civic has been having some problems the last few months, culminating in it not starting at all now. It's a 1997 manual transmission, with no power anything.

A few months ago, it began needing to be jumped if it sat for more than a few days. The battery is new, and the voltage is good when it's running, so I believe the battery and alternator are ok. About a month ago, I started it, and a couple minutes into my drive home from work, it began sputtering, and then died. I was able to get some friends to help push it back to the parking lot, where we jumped it, and let it run for several minutes, and then it drove home fine. About a week ago, my wife was driving it, and it did the same thing. She called AAA, who came out and told her to call a tow truck. The tow driver who came didn't want to tow her to where she wanted, so he poked his head under the hood, banged or pushed something, and then she was able to drive it home. The next day it completely died, and now it won't be jumped, and can't be started. I got it started by doing the rolling pop-the-clutch method, and got it to our mechanic, who has been telling us he couldn't find anything wrong with it. Now he says there's no power to the starter, but the starter is good. He started it so I could drive it home by shorting the solenoid to the battery.

I've checked the ignition switch, and it seems to be fine. There is power to all legs. When you turn the switch, the dash lights come on, there's slight hum, and then nothing. No clicking, or anything.

Any ideas on what I can check myself before I take it to an electrician? If it's something relatively simple, I'd rather do it myself.

Tanks,

Gerrit

 

Try another "Known Good" battery.

 

I've tried a known good battery, but it behaves the same way. The starter will start the engine if it is shorted to the battery, but it does nothing if the ignition switch is turned.

 

I had similar symptoms and ran an extra ground wire from solenoid bolt to firewall. Starter strong like bull now.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

It turns out to have been the clutch safety switch. I removed the connector and shorted the inputs and it started up just fine.

 

Glad you found the problem. Typically a clutch switch failure does not provide a single "click" sound when the key is turned to the start position... you actually get nothing... no noise other than the key switch making metallic sounds as the key position changes. Had you stated that you heard no sound when rotating the key to the start position, I would have suggested the clutch switch was the issue.