Newbie 89 Accord Se-i

[TravisT]

Hello,

I own an 89 Accord Se-i. It's my first Honda and I love it. I've always done most of the work on my cars and I like working on this one. It's old though and I'm looking to sell it and buy a 93 or something. I'm kinda poor. :D

I need help, I seem to have a short somewhere. Should I make a separate post?

Yesterday I got in and turned the key and I hear a relay go off under my hood but then the electricity dies. The lights on the door went out and the beeping noise goes out, then I can hear the beeping but its a lower note, less power I'm thinking, which gradually increases back to the normal beeping sound. I wasn't able to use my power windows or locks. I completely disconnected the starting solenoid but the problem persisted.

When I switch the key to on the power dies. It sounds like a short to me. No fuses were blown and the power automatically comes back so I was thinking there is a resettable circuit breaker or it's maybe a shorted relay. I was hoping with all your experience you would have some ideas I could concentrate on since I've never really worked on a car's electrical side. I do have a Hayne's with decent wiring schematics.

I was thinking I would test the main relay. I also thought about checking resistance at the fuse box to see if any of the wires read 0. Or just remove fuses one at a time and see if there is no short. Do these sound like normal ways of testing this issue?

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for your time and expertise.

Travis

[RAZR]

:welcome:

dont sell the 3gee there awesome cars :)

[TravisT]

:welcome:

dont sell the 3gee there awesome cars :)

Well I'm wondering if this one was in a flood or something because whenever I go to fix something, bolts shear off. When I went to change the thermostat, I had to buy a whole new housing. I'm on my 2nd oil pan. Where the exhaust manifolds mounts to the engine, I have to put healy-coils in the engine or something. I've only got three out of the 8 bolts left, the threads came right out. I really like it, the body is decent, most everything works, it's just old.

[RAZR]

well where do u live?
do u live in a place with a lot of salt?

[TravisT]

well where do u live?
do u live in a place with a lot of salt?

No, I'm in Seattle.

[RAZR]

hmm maybe have u checked the carfax?

[HERBERT]

Did you buy from Lewis county cuz it really only floods here

[Dr_Snooz]

Here's a primer on working with difficult bolts.

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64355&highlight=free+frozen+bolts

In your case, I recommend the hillybilly impact method. You're working with the toughest bolts on the car. The t-stat cover is especially difficult and more than one member (myself included) has had to replace the housing. The key to keeping the bolts in good shape is to keep the cooling system in top notch order. If you don't, it will develop leaks and drip acidic water onto the housing bolts. They will corrode and be glued permanently in their holes.

[forrest89sei]

This thread is useless without pics :bandance:

[charliekuney]

Yay, another Seattle person with an SE-i! I bet it's a Brittany Blue coupe.

:wave:

[firefighterwhite89]

Kinda sounds a WHOLE LOT like your battery has bitten the dust...You described my exact description to the T, of the past 3 times Batteries have bitten the dust in MY 3gee. Try another good battery first...

Other than that, welcome aboard!


There's no salt in Washington? i thought there was an ocean to the west of the state...and i thought most weather moved from west to east around there...maybe i'm wrong though...I'm from Alabama. there is no salt here...at all

[lostforawhile]

you already posted this same question here, on 4/8

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75441&page=2

and it seemed you had already gotten an answer


haha, ok so I spent an hour cleaning the terminals & stripping back the wires at the battery, etc. and what do you know. Car started up like a champ!

Thanks so much for your help! I won;t be a stranger. mabytwo different threads? anyway I hope it's fixed