Honda Car Forum

sorry if this is crossposting across the two groups ...

I have a few issues with my 96 accord and I figured that I can see if all
can be cleared at once.

1996 LX 5 speed with 121K miles on it.

To be honest, I thought this car will never break, but finally....

Today after trying to start it acted as if nothing is happening - I turn the
key and the starter doesn't spin - just click and silence. I checked the
battery - full, good, less than 1 year old. I checked the clutch - all the
way down, and I felt the difference when turning the key with clutch pressed
and depressed. After playing with the car for about 10 minutes ( clutch in -
clutch out, gas pedal movement, quite a few key turns ) I finally got it to
start - started no problem, like a champ I would say. I turned it off, and
tried to start again - obviously same result - no luck. Ok, for the
technical kinds - nothing turns, nothing even tries to turn - just a click -
nothing else.

Now for some background on the car

I've had it since 31K - all oil changes done, blah blah blah. Had my belts
replaced 5K miles ago. New battery in Dec 02. Now, I was about to change the
distributor wires and sparkplugs, but just haven't gotten around to it. No,
I haven't given the "do the sparks fly in the dark test", but I know I
haven't changed the wires for a long time. Lately I noticed that when I am
on the freeway ( 5th gear ~~~ 3K or so ~~ 65mph ) and I turn the AC on, the
car "stutters" - like it doesn't have enough power, it also seems to drive
a little weaker as long as the AC is on. Also lately ( maybe 1.5month or
so ) I have noticed that when I just get in the car in the morning, I turn
the key - and nothing, it acts as if I didn't press the clutch down, I
repeat and everything starts fine. If this makes a difference, the car is
garaged, and I always leave it in 1st when parked, and start with clutch in,
and still in 1st.

Last 30K or so miles I have also have noticed the vibrations are felt
throughout the whole body ( I looked this up on internet, and it seems
there's a whole bunch of people complaining about the same thing in similar
model years 96-97 ) at pretty much the whole range of speeds. I have had my
rotors replaced at 80K, and that didn't make any difference. I also have new
tires put on at around 105K, and have had them rotated since and again, that
didn't seem to make any difference either. Now, granted I am a pretty
consistent breaker ( read : break at the last moment and hard ), I find it
hard to believe that I could warp my rotors, as 90% of my driving is one on
the freeway - thus the breaking is kept to a minimum.


Now all these things described give me a few thoughts ( and please forgive
me if they are complete nonsense ) :

did the starter just DIE ? - the morning starting problems, and today's
fiasco with trying to get it to start seem like this might be a pretty valid
conclusion.

are my old and crying to be replaced distributor wires a culprit in any of
this ? - very possibly as I am sure them degrading with time doesn't help
the juice to flow
as well as spark plugs probably having plenty of carbon deposits on them - I
guess that could attribute to loss of power on the freeway as well as the
vibration
( all these notes remind me of another simple thing - the wire going from
the battery to the chassis - I know with age it gets corroded and the can
get pretty thin at the terminal ) - but wouldn't I feel it when starting if
it was the case ?


Sooooooooooooooooo, anybody wanna give me some ideas ?



--

Paul

paul@ PLEASE DO NO SPAM pnpgroup.ISAIDNOSPAMcom