Ignition/Starting problem.

[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.

I need help, I seem to have a short somewhere. I have looked around the site and have gotten a lot of good information. I am hoping you recognize the issue or can point me in the right direction to test.

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. And got the service manuals from the site.

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?

Thanks for your help.

[lostforawhile]

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.

I need help, I seem to have a short somewhere. I have looked around the site and have gotten a lot of good information. I am hoping you recognize the issue or can point me in the right direction to test.

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. And got the service manuals from the site.

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?

Thanks for your help.

have you checked the battery?

[ShyBoyCA6]

i'm been leaning towards the battery as well. might of caused damage to the battery. was the car sitting for a while?

[TravisT]

The Battery is pretty new. I've been driving it just about every day. I'm going to check the grounds and start resistance testing. I'll check the voltage and amps off the battery as well. Thanks

[ShyBoyCA6]

let us know what you come up with.

[TravisT]

Battery reads 12.15VDC.

[TravisT]

Ok so I went to test and some funny things happened.

I decided to check the coil and the manual uses this image. click here


I unplugged the three connectors and tested for resistance. Terminals A & D is supposed to be 1.2 - 1.5 Ohms. I got a short. It said the resistance on the primary side should be 1.2 - 1.5 ohms. I'm not sure what the primary side is. So that seems bad.

With these wires still unplugged from the coil, I turned the key on and got the same result. I put the key in Acc and checked the radio. It didn't work. I made sure the heater and everything I could see was off. Then I tried the headlights. Before the headlights wouldn't work. Now all of a sudden they pop up and the car lights up, the beep sounds normal and its acting like nothing is wrong.

I haven't gone to try and start it yet. I'm a little nervous about frying anything.

Do you think my coil has a short? Any ideas why everything seemed to be on half voltage until I turned my headlights on and then everything went back to normal?

Thanks for the help.

[TravisT]

Oh, and how exactly do I bypass my coil to start the engine? Thank you.

[Oldblueaccord]

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?

end quote


All of these are great ways to test locate and electrical problem.

There is no way to bypass the coil to start the car. It creates the spark.

I think first off you have low voltage 12.15 is pretty low. your looking for 12.7 or more on a fully charged battery. I would make sure you battery connections are very tight on the battery post. You should not be able to turn them off by hand.

Also there is an underhood fuse box I would look this over for bad fuses corrsion etc.

wp

[YK86]

I would clean up the battery posts and clamps real good first. You may get 12V but you'd be surprised how corroded parts (not rusty but kind of a dull gray color posts and white/greenish build up on the copper clamps) can cause the car to weird things. Make sure the ground wire is ok too. Check the voltage when you turn the key. 12V sitting may turn to 8V when you go to start the car.

Also, you can't start up the car with the coil bypassed. It's an important part of the ignition system.

[TravisT]

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.

[ShyBoyCA6]

should get some new terminals IMO

[import racer]

Use some die-electric grease on the terminals.

[Dr_Snooz]

The 1989 Accord Electrical Troubleshooting Manual and the 1989 USDM Accord Factory Service Manual are freely available on the wiki. They are vastly superior to anything from Chilton or Haynes.