My brother's car (88 CRX Si with a B18A) is screwed.

The car cranks but won't start. None of the accessories will go on (fan, hazards, lights,etc). Stepping on the brakes turns off the dome light. We're at a total loss.

Our assumptions are possibly the brain for the alarm (it goes off every time we try to start the car) or something shorted out inside (all the cluster lights are on and flashes).

Anybody else care to guess what might be wrong with it?

 

why not try to unplug the brain to the alarm and see if thats the problem

 

same results. motor just cranks and we still get the light show in the cluster.

 

ok, well check the basics,

1.is your battery dead?(probly not but it has to be said).
2.you might have a short, check your wiring real quick, look at the firewall where the wiring comes through.
3. check all your grounds.

its obviously an electrical problem, you have a short or SOMETHING somewhere, just check it, its not going to be quick and easy.

when did this start happening? did he just park one night come out in the morning and it was like this? or was there a swap done and it never worked right? i dont know, my answers are the easiest to think of but most of the time that about all it is, check all fuses under the dash AND hood, grounds and such, my friends car just started doing this, but it was because the rubber grommet on the firewall came off and the metal was rubbing into his wiring. easy fix since we found it without any major damage.

 

-the battery is brand new (thought that was it in the beginning)
-swap was done a long time ago
-the car was put away for a few months. started fine one day, the next day F$#@#$.
-we're slowly taking accesories off (in case of a ground problem)
-fuses are all OK

We should be done checking things over tonight.

 

if the battery is new but the alarm goes off every time you try and start the car I would concentrate on the alarm. find the fuse(s) for the alarm and pull them out. there might be 1 near the battery and 1 near the brain. pull those out and try and start the car and see what happens

 

We disconnected the fuses to the alarm already. Same light show in the cluster and motor just cranks but doesn't start.

Also, we installed a whistle. Everytime we press the button you can faintly see lights in the cluster turn on. Weird. There's gotta be a bad ground or a feedback some where.

 

if you pulled the fuses to the alarm how is it still going off? and what is a whistle?

 

dunno how it still works??? i'm just as confused as you are.

a whistle is the alarm siren with a momentary switch. press-pause-press and it makes a whistling sound to the young ladies (18 and over)

 

Try disconnecting the power and ground of the Alarm and try to start it. Its seems like the Alarm is still getting power.

 

Like any computer program, start commenting lines until the problem goes away. In this case....keep pulling fuses until the problem stops....at which point you will have found the fucked circuit.