Helping a friend with their base model 2005 Civic (located in Ontario, Canada). The Civic has approx 100,000km /60,000 milesl. It has generally ran pretty good. My friend said about 5-6 times in the few weeks the car would not start. He said that he turned the key and there was no start...but, he did hear an abnormal noise. Each time, this problem only happened once and the car started fine the next time.

I asked him to drop by...figured that the battery might be low...or could be an issue with the starter. He tried to reproduce the starting problem...but i started fine 4-5 times...then eventually the problem happened...I was sitting in the passenger seat while he started the car. The engine was off..he turned the key to start...their was an abnormal whirring/very light grinding/ticking/spinning noise that I thought was coming from near the ignition switch. The noise happened for 3-4 seconds and then he released the key - when he tried to start again, the car started fine. We could not reproduce the issue again...

The noise was difficult to describe...but, I thought it was like a whirring/very light grinding/ticking/spinning noise. I am almost certain that the noise was coming from inside the dash near the switch..but not right at the switch...almost seemed to be from in front ot the ign. switch near the lower part of the dash..though, I am not certain on this....as I only heard the noise once and it would not reproduce.

If we can get the problem to reproduce, i will do some troubleshooting. I checked the battery condition and connections..and they appear to be ok. Again the noise seemed like it was inside near the ign switch/...any ideas ? Or troubleshooting advice


thx

 

Turn the headlights on while you try to start, if they go real dim or out you are losing power from a bad connection somewhere or possibly a faulty battery.

Check the ground wire from the battery where it connects to the frame and the engine. A voltmeter can be used to see where the voltage is being lost.

When the system voltage drops, typically a bunch of relays under the dash will chatter and buzz.