Honda Car Forum

I have an '88 Civic DX and it developed a starting problem. It cranks
and fires up fine but immediately dies. This is intermittent (for
now). After several tries or some wait it would start and run just
fine.

I've read about the main relay issue and pulled the relay but at first
glance all solderings seem fine.

Also when this happens when you turn the key to the ignition position
(one before the crank position) there are no lights on the instrument
panel. When everything is normal those check lights would stay on as
they should with the key in this position.

This makes me think that maybe it has a bad ignition switch ?!? Could
this be the case or this could still be the Main Relay? How could I
test and tell for sure?

Thanks!

Push the Key to the 2 o'clock position and/or hold it just between start and
run, used to work at Honda and saw it "once or twice"

"TurboJeepR" <turboJpr@intherough.net> wrote in message
news:3rlogv8ussf1q2gtl601bs7hooifcoipuf@4ax.com...
> I have an '88 Civic DX and it developed a starting problem. It cranks
> and fires up fine but immediately dies. This is intermittent (for
> now). After several tries or some wait it would start and run just
> fine.
>
> I've read about the main relay issue and pulled the relay but at first
> glance all solderings seem fine.
>
> Also when this happens when you turn the key to the ignition position
> (one before the crank position) there are no lights on the instrument
> panel. When everything is normal those check lights would stay on as
> they should with the key in this position.
>
> This makes me think that maybe it has a bad ignition switch ?!? Could
> this be the case or this could still be the Main Relay? How could I
> test and tell for sure?
>
> Thanks!

I had a main relay go bad on my 90 civic. I pulled it apart also and it
looked fine, but it wasn't!! I replaced it with one from a salvage yard.
I got like 5 of them now for spares. If anyone needs one let me know.
nextgen2@fbs.net


"TurboJeepR" <turboJpr@intherough.net> wrote in message
news:3rlogv8ussf1q2gtl601bs7hooifcoipuf@4ax.com...
> I have an '88 Civic DX and it developed a starting problem. It cranks
> and fires up fine but immediately dies. This is intermittent (for
> now). After several tries or some wait it would start and run just
> fine.
>
> I've read about the main relay issue and pulled the relay but at first
> glance all solderings seem fine.
>
> Also when this happens when you turn the key to the ignition position
> (one before the crank position) there are no lights on the instrument
> panel. When everything is normal those check lights would stay on as
> they should with the key in this position.
>
> This makes me think that maybe it has a bad ignition switch ?!? Could
> this be the case or this could still be the Main Relay? How could I
> test and tell for sure?
>
> Thanks!

Thanks for all the tips. As it turns out it was a bad ignition switch.
I took it apart and the contacts were all burned up inside. I scraped
all of them clean with a knife, put the whole thing back together and
it now starts and runs as fine as ever. Thanks for the pointers from
you guys at least I new where to start looking. Now I just hope the
part store will take the new main relay and ignition switch back!

On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 14:51:20 -0400, TurboJeepR
<turboJpr@intherough.net> wrote:

>I have an '88 Civic DX and it developed a starting problem. It cranks
>and fires up fine but immediately dies. This is intermittent (for
>now). After several tries or some wait it would start and run just
>fine.
>
>I've read about the main relay issue and pulled the relay but at first
>glance all solderings seem fine.
>
>Also when this happens when you turn the key to the ignition position
>(one before the crank position) there are no lights on the instrument
>panel. When everything is normal those check lights would stay on as
>they should with the key in this position.
>
>This makes me think that maybe it has a bad ignition switch ?!? Could
>this be the case or this could still be the Main Relay? How could I
>test and tell for sure?
>
>Thanks!