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last week i took my car to the shop because it was sputtering and stalling, they said they couldnt find a problem with it, and when i got it back it ran fine. they said moisture must have gotten in somewhere.
well everything was fine until i had to pick up a friend from work when it was raining. the car began to stall again and i ended up killing my battery trying to get it home.
a friend of mine said he had a similar problem when a shop once forgot to plug his O2 sensor in, so i got under my car to check that out. i knew it was plugged in, but the wire for it was long and it dangled from the bottom, so i thought maybe it scraped and the wires were exposed….i was right..
so i took the O2 out and shortened the wire, and repaired the wires, put it back together, even wrote out a diagram so i didnt confuse the wires.
then i put the O2 back in the catalytic converter, plugged it in, secured the gromet. and waited for my friend to come and jump my car. assuming it would now run.
he got here, at first it just cranked, and didnt turn over. then i got it to turn over, and it would immediately die once it started, no matter if i gave it more gas or not.
im burrowing a battery charger to charge the battery to full, but i know its not going to run yet, so i would like and greatly appreciate some input on what it could be. i took out the O2 again to make sure it was alright, i can take pictures of it or whatever may be needed.
any information is appreciated
-Josh-
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i know the relay is bad for the simple fact that when i take the circuit board out of the case you can smell that it had overheated and burned up. no visible damage but the smell is evident as soon as you take it out.
then again im not positive, but when it smells like that its never good.
[quote=”deville89″ post=82538]UPDATE: got the battery charged up,and was inspecting the spark wires and discovered one was popped out a little bit, pushed it back down and cleaned off the wires attaching to the battery because there was lots of corrosion. tried to start the car; as soon as i turned the key, before cranking i would hear a loud clicking and clattering sound coming from the dash on the passenger side. didnt think anything of it at first.
today i was on the site and read about the main relay going bad in honda’s. and realized it was near where i been hearing all that noise. so when i got home i checked to make sure i had fuel pressure (loosened the fuel filter and turned the key, without cranking. fuel spit out as expected) and then i went over to the passenger side and dropped the glove box down and turned the key and verified that it was in fact the main relay making all that noise. i took it out, but there was no broken solders like in eric’s video. so i suspect it shorted somehow and needs replacing.
but this is where i am at now. the car now does not turn over at all (when the relay is connected) it just cranks and cranks.
would like some feedback on what you think, if i should replace the relay, or take further steps to diagnose the crank, no start.
thanks for all your help! much appreciated![/quote]
My Nissan Maxima was exhibiting these symptoms and it turned out to be the MAF sensor. The funny thing is it never threw a MAF sensor code prior to the sensor going bad… it threw a “lean” code. Once it went bad, the car wouldn’t run.
I also had the fuel filter clog badly in it and it would chug and stall any time I came to a stop. I had to end up replacing the pump and the filter (although I’ve known enough people that have owned Honda’s to know that fuel pumps RARELY go bad… so take this story with a grain of salt… however, I’d rule it out just in case). I’m sure I’m echoing everyone here that if it is fuel related, ONLY use OEM parts.
My suggestion would be pulling any codes, if there are any, seeing what comes up, and check the fuel pressure before doing anything else.
[quote=”deville89″ post=82562]i know the relay is bad for the simple fact that when i take the circuit board out of the case you can smell that it had overheated and burned up. no visible damage but the smell is evident as soon as you take it out.
then again im not positive, but when it smells like that its never good.[/quote]
Sometimes those components smell funny when nothing is wrong.
I agree with Eric, start with the switch inspection
http://techauto.awardspace.com/ignitionswitch.htmlif that passes than go back to testing the main relay.
http://techauto.awardspace.com/mainrelay.htmlim not saying your wrong about the relay being fine regardless to the smell of it, but why would it make such a racket when i turn the key to the on position right before attempting to start the car? it has never done that before all this began.
[quote=”deville89″ post=82603]im not saying your wrong about the relay being fine regardless to the smell of it, but why would it make such a racket when i turn the key to the on position right before attempting to start the car? it has never done that before all this began.[/quote]
See the arcing? that could be causing the relay to kick on and off.
Can’t hurt to check it out before spending money, you probably would be upset to pay for a main relay and a ignition switch.
UPDATE: i took a break from the car for a little bit. i kept the relay in the house, and just put it off for a couple plays. today i needed to move my car, so i figured it would plug the relay back in a give it a shot. well i plugged it back in and turned the key, there was no clicking. so there must be a bad solder somewhere on there that expanded from being warm and securing the connection again. im going to inspect it again and see what i can find. but i couldnt start the car due to the battery being dead. charging it tonight. ill also check your ideas and see what happens. just wanted to let you know what i discovered today.
Just want to add that the battery did have a charge. just not enough to try to turn it over. didnt want you to think it didnt click or anything because the battery was dead haha :p
UPDATE: put the Main Relay back into the car today, charged the battery up. also plugged the O2 sensor back into the car. turned the key and hear no clicking, then i tried to crank it. cranked for a few seconds and then fired up. the car ran for a few minutes and then stalled out. i assumed the O2 was bad due to what happened before so i unplugged it. started the car up again and it ran, it sputters and hiccups but it runs. but the speedometer still goes nuts. i took a couple videos i am going to post.
im going to look at the relay again and try to find where the broken solder is, because when its warm, it works, when its cold it dont.
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