Hey guys, been a while since i’ve been on here seein how i havent touched my DA for nearly a year and a half. When i left it, right after changing the transmission, everything was good. Fired right up before. Tried to go start it up the other day after i replaced the battery. Everything powered on (radio, dash, clock, even headlights and wipers worked, etc.) My issue is when i turn the key to the start position, everything just shuts off. As soon as i release it, everything turns back on. The car doesn’t try to crank or anything. Ive replaced the positive and ground cables on the battery. Ive even checked all my other grounds to make sure they are all good. Ive checked all the fuses to make sure none were blown. I’m not really sure where to go at this point. Ive tried searching but haven’t found anything.
Extremely similar to a lot of problems I and other members have had. I’m willing to put money on your ignition switch being the source of your problem.
To check your ignition switch:
Disconnect your neg battery cable. Turn your ignition switch to the O (far left) position and remove the key. Remove steering wheel. Remove driver side lower dash and knee bolster panels. Remove plastic steering column covers. Remove the 2 bolts and 2 nuts holding your steering column to the body of the car to drop your column. Pull the column down a bit and look at your ignition switch. On the back there will be a series of wires soldered to a piece of black plastic. There are two screws holding this piece of plastic on to the housing which holds the lock cylinder etc. Remove these two screws and DO NOT LOSE THEM!
When you pull it out of the housing, there is a white piece that was facing the lock cylinder, use a couple of butter knives or anything else that works for you to pry 2 of the 5 clips holding the white piece to the black piece up, and gently pull it apart. There are springs inside of there, do not let them fall out, they rarely do but just be aware of them.
First look at the back side where all of the solder is. Is the solder melted or scorched looking? Is there solder melting over onto other solder points? Now, on the inside of the black piece you will see all of the contact plates for the wires that connect to it. All of the surfaces should be flat, if they are badly pitted you will need a new switch harness. If they are just mucked up or corroded, clean them up and apply some fresh dielectric grease to them. You can also use an ammeter at this point to test for continuity to ensure that the wires are not damaged. Put everything back together in reverse order, and you have a good as new ignition switch. Make sure the two small screws you took out of the back of the switch are torqued down completely, but don’t overdo it.
This should take 15 minutes, 30 tops. It’s real quick, and is worth checking even if it turns out to not be the problem. If everything comes back clean let us know.
Thank you very much for your quick reply. I just got done checking this and it doesn’t look too bad but I’m going to go ahead and replace the harness. Plus there was a really crappy ignition cutoff on the car that I’ve been dying to take out because I’m assuming the guy screwed it up lol. The harness was only $60 and it’s arriving tomorrow so hopefully I can fill you in tomorrow. Wish me luck :D. And thank you again
I’ll second the ignition switch as being the culprit. 3yrs ago I had mine fail but it failed in the “ON” position but worked in start. You could actually start the car but it’d die immediately as soon as the key came back to “ON”. If I held the key in the “START” position the car drove fine.
just changed out the ignition switch…no difference. Double checked all the fuses and still no good. Sorry for it seeming like you have to spoon feed me answers but I honestly have no idea where to go from here. I’m gonna keep searching and hope someone can chime in with some more information.
Now i don’t know how big of a difference this makes but we did do a B16a swap in it before we blew out the transmission but never had any issues with it for a few months i drove it.
I’ll try to offer you a few suggestions, so you might have more than one thing to try between now and if someone else can give you any further insight on this.
I know this problem can be caused also by loose battery terminals, but you said you checked grounds and replaced the terminals already. So that’s out of the hat I suppose.
Are you absolutely positive you are loosing ALL power when you turn to the START position? If it wasn’t the switch and you are getting nothing, it really does sound like a bad ground, you should test the grounds between your ignition switch and your starter.
If I were in your position, I would probably start checking voltages at this point. Time to bust out your ammeter.
Also, when you checked your fuses before did you actually test them or did you just eyeball them? If they are cracked you would have a hard time seeing it, I’d suggest testing them for continuity with your ammeter for good measure if you haven’t already done so.
it could be a bad battery, when you turn the key to the on position ALOT of the things inside of the car turns off before the car trys to start. The battery may have enough power to keep the things on, but when you turn that key it may not have power to turn the starter thus equalling in everything turning off.
My friend had this same issue with his 91 integra, interior lights would turn off same with instrument lights as he would turn the key. The battery was discharged, so we charged it via jumper cables for about 10 minutes. We tried to start it again and the battery just completely discharged itself(could be a bad ground) BUT, we let it charge again but for about 20-25 min. this time and the starter finally turned and the car started right up, no problems after that.
-karlo
i may be wrong, but it was that for my friend.
sorry guys been busy, doin a motor swap with my cousin in his 91 VR4 3000gt so haven’t really had a chance to mess with the integra. Gonna mess with it a bit more today. Ill grab a voltmeter and i’m gonna swap out EVERY fuse just to be sure. I guess technically i’m not losing ALL power but everything dims down EXTREMELY to where in my opinion it is practically all off. I’ll get a video if neccassary to be more clear. I guess I’m missing a ground somewhere or something. So frustrating :mad:
edit: Btw it is a BRAND new battery and even though it won’t start the integra, it does fire up my accord which technically does require more cranking amps so i doubt the battery is the problem
