So the past few days my car has been acting strange... the other night I was leaving my friends house after only being there for like ten minutes and my car was completely dead in and out. We were able to jump it and it started fine and drove fine for about the next three days. Yesterday when I was leaving my house to go back to work it was dead again except this time it would not jump at all and was still showing no power what so ever. When I got home from work that night it just randomly started up fine without a jump so that's why I'm kinda confused.

What I have done so far:

I got the battery checked and it was Good
I checked all the fuses and they were all Good
I checked the starter (probably a waste of time) and that was Good
All my ground connections and battery terminals are Good

So the only thing I am thinking is that its the ignition switch at this point but was just seeing what some other people thought since I have never ran into this problem before. And if that was the case can I just replace the switch itself or do I have to do the whole locking cylinder as well? Any feedback would be amazing...Thanks guys

 

you could prolly change out the switch.. but id make sure thats the problem first instead of just throwing parts at the problem... would help to know what kind of car it is to..

 

MM&Y of car please.

Also some clarification....
You said, "my car was completely dead in and out" do you mean no power at all, no dome light, no horn and no headlights, [with ign. key off] or just no power when you turn the ign. on, no cluster lights, no door/seat belt chimes and no starter?

You also said, " We were able to jump it and it started" what exactly do you mean by "jump it", used jumper cables from another car and started the car with the key, did a "bypass jump" by running a lead from the batt. directly to the starter motor or a "bump start" by pushing car and popping the clutch?

One more thing, is it a standard or automatic? 94

 

lol my bad guys i should have cleared that up.... its a 96 civic. as far as the power issue there was nothing at all that was working. we were able to jump it the first time with some cables but not the other times. It is a manual transmission as well....thanks guys i should have been more specific.

 

well, if nothings working... i really dont think its the ignition switch... check the battery charge, and all the grounds.

 

Ditto the above^^^.

It has to be a connection problem, as mentioned, if all power is lost it is not an ign. switch problem as things like head lights, horn and dome lights are not controlled in any way by the ign. switch.

I would start by checking the batt. ground terminal, [remove and clean both the batt. terminal and the cable clamp and reconnect] then the chassis and engine grounds, [same way, remove clean and reconnect].

If that does not solve the problem move to the power, [pos.(+)] side, starting with the batt. pos(+) terminal and post, then to the batt. connection to the engine bay fuse box, then the main fuse itself, [fuse 41 - 80A] make sure the fuse is connected properly, remove Philips screws, clean both the fuse terminals and reinstall making sure the screws are tight.

If that does not solve the problem you will have to start checking plug in connections to the engine bay fuse box and the under dash fuse box.

One more thing, if the above does not solve the problem, and before you start pulling stuff apart to check the plugs, replace the main fuse, [fuse 41- 80A] with a new one, even if it looks good, fuses can be defective, constant vibration can break a filament "leg" at the point it is connected to the fuse terminals, fuse looks good but connection is intermittent. 94

 

I had same problem almost to the tee in my gsr mine didnt start at all at the end and it was the switch only way I found out with out throwing parts at it, is taking it apart and basicly hot wiring it to see if it would start and it did. FYI everything will check good under the hood like you already did but it don't hurt to double check everything! Here's the link, you do not have to buy the entire locking assembly!!!



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