I just went to crank up my car 98 Civic EX Coupe and it made a fizzle sound and I no longer have any power in my car. I have checked all of my fuses with my probe inside and outside the car. NOTHING will turn on, radio, lights, dash lights, NOTHING.

Again, I just want to reiterate that I checked all of the fuses on the inside and outside of the car and my battery is holding at a solid 12.5v. Any ideas?

This is driving me crazy!

 

Check whether the battery ground wire in the engine bay is loose or corroded. Did you check the 80A fuse under the hood?

 

I checked the ground wire and all is good on that. I am getting power to a majority of the fuses in the interior box as well. I did check the fuse that you mentioned several times and it checks out perfectly everytime.

I also checked the appropriate wires on the back of the ignition switch. I am not getting constant 12v nor switched 12v on the inside.

I am going to go quadruple check that fuse again and the ground and see what I can come up with, this is honestly the strangest electrical problem that I have ever seen.

 

Does anything electrical work? Under the hood, which fuses have battery voltage and which do not?

 

okay took the battery ground off and used my abrasive drill bit to grind bare metal down and re-attached... it worked thanks yet again for your help ron J

 

When you have a car that is stone dead like that, it's usually a battery connection. To check with a meter, first turn on the headlight switch so there's a load on the system. Then go under the hood. Start by measuring the voltage at the battery, touching the lead posts directly (not the car terminals). If it's less than 12 volts, battery itself is dead.

After establishing that there is voltage in the battery, put one probe on the lead battery post and the other one on the car terminal that is clamped to it. Should measure zero if the connection is good. Keep testing across all the power and ground connections until you find the bad one.