So I have been looking over my brothers Civic for the past few days with nothing but frustration setting in. The facts:

- When trying to start the car, all we get is a clicking from the interior fuse box. Specifically the relay(s) on the fuse box. We have no idea what these are as I cannot locate a diagram for this fuse box. These are the relays when looking at the box are bottom left just above the 2 rows of fuses. (if anyone has a diagram as to what everything is on this, please lmk as this will help me out greatly)

- This clicking slowly dies as you hold the key, but letting it go and trying again brings full juice back to the clicking.

- I have checked the battery...it's fully charged

- I have swapped out the starter with a brand new one with the same exact problem. But I also jumped the starter directly to the battery and got the car to fire up once. After that we tried the samething with the old starter and got nothing. So I swapped the new starter back on hoping that would be a fix for now. So before I gave my brother a badass push button start, I tried to jump the starter again, but nothing came of it. Now when we jump the starter the clicking inside the car instantly stops and the car won't even try to turn over. It seems like the fly wheel is not even being engaged.

- So next chance I get to look at the car I want to start looking at the ignition system itself.

- In conclusion, we turn the key and get clicking from relays and no start.


If anyone has had similar problems or has ideas on where to go from here I'd really be grateful. Thanks!

ßill

 

didnt jump the 3rd time you tried, so that seems like it threw a wrench in there (figuratively)... Get a haynes (or any) manual for your car and it will have all the diagrams, I dont have your year or i would just throw a pic of my diagram. I would probably try swapping out the relays/fuses and see if that helps, and just slowly work your way down the circuit replacing anything that could have broken or gone bad.

Just realized the pic I found doesnt touch base on the relays. Just walk in pepboys and take a pic of the manual on the page you need.

 

We have the haynes manual, but none of the diagrams in there seem to match up or be what we need.

I forgot to mention we went out and bought new relays too and swapped those out, and still the same problems. I was really excited when the car started up after jumping the starter, that really narrowed everything down as a problem and gave me a quick fix so he could drive the car. Now.....bleh.

ßill

 

Measure voltage at the battery while trying to start. If it drops below 9.0, recharge or replace battery. If the voltage is OK at the battery (measured on the lead posts that are part of the battery), measure again at the starter, from starter big wire from battery to starter ground. If no voltage there, check the battery terminals and the ground points.