OK, it’s dumped outside the garage but while waiting they’ve invited me to have a(nother) poke around which I might do. Soooooo……

1997 Honda Civic hatchback (the car of your dreams I know 😉 )
Has had occasional starting issues – turn the key and nothing, or rapid solenoid clicks. But at least once it was seeming crappy battery connections, and other times I just turned the key again and it fired up fine.

It got worse recently, and as batteries are reasonably cheap I bought a new one, new negative to earth cable and new positive battery connector and cleaned up the cable at that end as it was very dull. I can’t easily reach the starter end. At the same time I tested the alternator with the lights on and volt meter and it was working great.

The car worked perfectly for a week and I figured I’d fixed it. Started great twice yesterday morning and then……dead. No lights including interior, no clicking, only beeping when the key is in the ignition and door open. Everything else is deceased. Tow truck came and tried to jump start but still totally dead.

I’m guessing it’s the positive cable at the starter end but I am totally useless with electronics. Surprisingly there isn’t too much on-line on this exact issue, just assumptions the battery is dead. I’m guessing fuses either work or don’t as I can rule these out as the car tends to be either dead or the starter turns over the battery perfectly?

Help me STW, you’re not my only hope but you are free 😉

That is very confusing. No lights suggests the battery is dead. However if a recovery truck couldn’t jump start it, it suggests the starter motor or something else after the battery is at fault.

Buy a new car. And torch that one to get the insurance money from it.

Did you check the positive cable to the starter? If it’s corroded internally it could well cause enough voltage drop to stop it from starting.

Edit: this would not affect the lights though 🙁

Dead short on starter or alternator

Or just a broken signal wire
I love quessing

The battery powers the starter motor, not vice versa.

Is the battery now dead?

Off the top of my head: duff battery, dodgy alternator, corroded wiring, parasitic drain from somewhere.

Is a ’97 Civic basically a Rover 45? No idea on how much is shared between them, but worth looking on Rover forums too??

Alternator is gubbed and hasn’t been recharging the battery?

Oh, and it might be more cost effective for a mobile auto-electrician to look at it, rather than a garage mechanic.

Starter, happened to mine a couple of years back. On that model of Civic, the starter is in a prime place to pick up all the crap off the road and it corrodes until eventually it just breaks the connection

Or, it could be something else

check the starter relay as another port of call.

Thanks all. Would the starter also kill the connections to the lights etc?

I tested the alternator and it was working the other day. The battery is about a week old and the car wouldn’t jump via tow truck so pretty sure it’s not charging related.

No lights including interior, no clicking, only beeping when the key is in the ignition and door open

If it beeps at you when the door is open and the key is in then it’s working normally with the key in the off position. It’s just not registering that you’ve turned the key. Now I suppose it could be the starter switch itself, but that seems unlikely somehow. I would guess it’s something like the CAN gateway not waking up or not realising the key’s been turned and booting the car up – something along those lines. If a car that old even has a CAN gateway, of course. These things could be relay related.

To know for sure you need a wiring diagram. I suspect mokgeips is on the right track. I don’t know that year model all that well but does it have relays? They can become intermittent for no apparent reason. I’d say a bad ground somewhere fusebox related except for the fact that the door open beeper works. So figure out what separates it from everything else that doesn’t work and you’ve cracked it. If you have a relay box I’d guess main relay or ground to/from it. I suspect your ignition key has it’s own ground, which is why the beeper works

I had similar experience on my wifes old Cmax, everything working fine she visits her cousin a few miles away and I get a call to say the car wont start, pops down in mine and its totally dead no lights,interior or instruments, central locking dead, doesnt even click or anything when trying to start it just nothing.

Gets the AA guy out who diagnoses a dead alternator, well actually it would fluctuate between overcharging and then not charging.

I Fitted a new alternator and reconditioned/trickle charged the battery and all good again.

Has it got an alarm thats isolating the electrics?
If the battery is new and the alternator is working correctly and you get nothing else then it could also be the ign switch , but my best guess is alarm immobiliser issue
Failing that , constant leak to earth with something random like an illuminated mirror lamp being on 24/7 and killing the battery

Thanks all.
No alarm. It doesn’t even have a clock 😀
I’m totally thick about electricity but I did test the alternator the other day with the new battery in it and it was working fine, and the tow truck guy tried to jump start the car and it was still lifeless with the jump leads on the battery so I’m pretty sure that the battery is fully charged. It’s also historically from time to time been dead the first time I turned the key over, but do it again and the car starts perfectly. The ignition side of things is so predictable that I know exactly when to let go of the key when engaging the starter and know it will fire up. Or it’ll be dead!

Yeah it’s interesting that the car beeps with the key in the ignition and the door open even when everything else is dead. Yes there are relays too. I’ll do a bit more research when I am off work tomorrow.

Do the interior lights come on when the door opens?

I’m thinking it could be a bad earth, I would spend an hour looking round at all the earth connections, disconnecting, cleaning up and reassembling with grease.

I’ve seen a similar problem on my wife’s panda and it fixed that.

^Bingo!

One of the mechanics came in on his day off to work on his own car and happened to see my car all miserable outside. He took pity on it and had a look. The result being that I am a moron 🙂 It was the negative to earth cable that I’d replaced causing the problem. Or at least I’d wiped down the car body at the point of connection, but it needed a good cleaning and sanding in order for those electricities to run around properly or whatever they do. Starting great again now.

Thanks all.

90’s hondas are notorious for solder joints going bad on the main relay. You can pop them out and re solder them.