xCHRISx

Okay, im going to explain to you what happened earlier today. Hopefully someone can help me out on this because i'm trying to swap another motor in and this was a road block.

So i'm driving to work, and it was about 10 minutes in when i stopped at a light and as soon as i put the car in neutral, it just shut off on me. Then i started it back up, but when i did, it sounded very weak like it wanted to die. But it did start up, and i drove on towards my job, then i got to another light and i was turning into the shopping center and when i put it in neutral for about 1 second, it died. It wouldn't start up again. It turned over once or twice then made 2 clicks toward the passenger side (battery?) Later on when i got off, my friend was there to jump it, and it actually turned on, but i left it in idle, neutral, and let it sit for a second, and the moment the radiator came on, the car shutoff. Then we tried jumping it again, and it barely started, and when it died, i tried driving it around. and it was fine for a little until i drove it across the street into a neighborhood, and stopped at a stop sign. where it died completely, and it doesn't respond to jumping (With an exception of a few weak turn overs.)

the weirdest thing is, my battery is somewhat new and the power is still on in my car, and when i go to start it, there is a static sound, clicks, and the power looks like it's being drained

Any opinions or professional opinion or personal experiences are gladly appreciated, Thanks

PicovAndropov

Check fuel pressure, check spark.

Fabrik8

Sounds like a power or ground problem. If it's not cranking properly and not getting enough voltage to run properly, the fuel and spark don't matter at all.

xCHRISx

i was waiting for an answer like that. I was wondering why when we jumped the car, the ground on the battery didn't really phase it but the ground on/near the tranny made it work. So do i just relocate the ground?

xCHRISx

Thank you both, i'll try relocating the ground down to that ground and put results up here.

TNGChris

You don't need to relocate any grounds,just make sure the existing stock grounds are in good shape.
Check the following grounds to make sure the fasteners are tight,the wire and connections aren't frayed/broken/corroded/etc.
-from negative battery post to shock tower
-from tranny to frame rail
-from radiator support to head

Fabrik8

Don't relocate it, just change the ground cable and make sure that the attachment points are cleaned up before you do. You can actually test with a multimeter to see what's going on. If there is a ground problem, you'll see a big voltage drop between the block and the battery ground terminal when you try to start the car. A digital multimeter just compares the two input wires, so you can put one probe on the block and one probe on the battery negative terminal and the multimeter will show what the voltage difference is. If there is 3 volts difference (just for example) the multimeter will tell you 3 volts like that. That doesn't occur to most people, who only think that you can measure voltage between power and ground and that's it. See, now you know more about electrical troubleshooting than most people who work on cars.

In the case of corrosion, grounding points are not all at the same voltage potential. That causes big problems.

12345r

sounds like the battery needs to be replaced as if droped a cell but take a volt meter and see what the battery voltage is with the car off if it at 12.6 the battery is 100% charged and if its down to 12.0 then u have a weak battery but also start car if u can and she what the alt is putting out by take the volt meter and testing it at the battery should be 13.6 to 15.5 if its not in that rang u need to replace alt pm me if u need more info or help

AaronDavis

could be a battery problem, but once again, I agree with fabrik8.

Do a voltage drop test over the ground cable. Ive seen a car more than once that the cable passes a continuity test measuring like .3 ohms but you do a voltage drop test and it measures like 4 volts, which is theoretically a third of your battery.

The ground from the radiator support to the head and tranny to the body are not necessary to run a car, argue if you want but Ive left them both off before and the car still runs fine, the body and engine are grounded through 3 mounts.

Alternators do go bad but a lot of times more than others it is a cable or connection problem. I would try a voltage drop test on all your cables first, since it's free.

TNGChris

All five engine/tranny mounts on a 6G Civic are rubber insulated from the chassis.If you've got any kind of engine/tranny mount metal to chassis metal contact going on that could create a ground,then you've got other issues as well,haha.
If both the head and tranny grounds are disconnected or bad,then your sole ground is through the various engine harness grounds,connecting the engine at the thermostat housing point and to the chassis at the various common grounds.I can see the engine running using only this ground,but I'd be surprised if the starter would operate correctly using only a handfull of small gauge wires to carry that amount of current.