Hey all,

I'm no mechanic, but I have changed the brakes on this car, so I can do a few things. I have been stumped by what this car has been doing over the past year or two and it finally came to a head today.

About a year ago My 1998 Honda Accord Ex 2.3L Manual began to have issues starting, mainly because I was driving it less. I would have to jump it fairly often, it was on a new battery, it's had three batteries over the past 4 years. Additionally, the climate control lights because turning off completely and I could not control whether the air was hot or cold or which fans were on. Function not controlled by electronics still worked, like how hard the fan blows. This has been accompanied by, every time I start the car I get a belt squeal, it goes on for awhile especially if I have more air blowing, headlights on, wipers on, etc. It eventually goes away, especially if I give it more RPMs, it comes back when I stop or turn and let off gas and the RPMs drop down to 600ish, then the cycle repeats. It feels like the whole car just gets half the power it should when this happens.

Now today I went to start it (after having driven it multiple times yesterday) and it turned over and over but would not start. I couldn't get it to start and eventually the battery died. I hooked it up to another vehicle for power and still it would just turn over and would not start. Once or twice I felt the engine catch and try, but it would not start, just kept turning over. I am now completely stumped. I presume there is definitely something wrong with the electronics, but now I can't get it to start so it is stuck in my driveway, a car I need for work and I can't drive it to a mechanic. Just looking to see if anyone has any ideas of what could be causing all this. I know it's probably not as detailed as it needs to be, but I wanted to lay it out. Some additional info: It has an aftermarket double din stereo that works perfectly fine all the time while the car has power. Power windows work almost all the time, but there have been times where the passenger side does not respond at all. Power locks do not work at all, switch feels empty.

Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

 

First things I would check are your fuses, maybe clean your main ground wire connections from battery to chassis/engine and pull the distributor cap and inspect the condition of the pins inside the cap and rotor surface. Look for corrosion build up. You can carefully chip it off with a flat head screw driver to see if that helps and if so just replace them. Also does your car have a alarm that you leave on for long periods of time when not driven? Could start and let the car just get to operating temp once every 2 weeks and would help keep a charge to the battery.
Those would be my staring points.

 

Thanks for the response Maxcapacity. So after watching a bunch of youtube last night, I was convinced it was either the spark plugs or a fuse/fuel relay. I could still hear the low hum of the fuel pump whenever I turn the key to on. So after trying to start it this morning and it turning over but not firing up, I worked on it all day. checked all the spark plugs and wires to make sure they were not melted or corroded. Took out the battery and cleaned the battery cables and terminals (battery was off for around 2 hours), checked the distributor cap and housing, and checked fuses. When I put it back together and put the battery back in, it fired right up first try and has been good all day. Even had confidence to go put gas in it (tank was 1/10 full). I was convinced it was the pgm-fi relay and was ready to go pick one up, but I guess it is fine. So I remained stumped.

Per your comment, I do not have an alarm or anything that is left on when no driven. It is driven at least 5 days a week for 20-30min. For the last two years though it was rarely driven so that's why the battery has been angry lately. The previously mentioned other issues remain. After I got it to start there is a belt squeal for 1-2sec. If I turn on headlights and rpm is at idle then power drops (for example the climate light is green and bright when headlights not on, when I turn them on it becomes half as bright) and belt squeal returns for 10-30sec until power normalizes (I can speed this process up by pushing the gas a little and sitting at 1200-1500rpms and power returns to full faster). If at the same time I turn on headlights, heaters on full, plus A/C, and turn wipers on, and emergency lights then the car feels very bogged down and belt squeals harder.

 

The squeal is normally caused by a loose belt. I would definitely pull the belt off your alternator and spin its pulley by hand to see if the bearing is going or causing much resistance. If it's fine, make sure you get the belt on fairly tight. I think it should be about 7-9mm deflection in the middle between pulleys when you push on it after being installed.