Civic EG

I went to NAPA today, looking for a new battery. turns out the battery was about 80 bucks. I said screw it. I went ahead and bought a bigger battery (for a normal car) for $40 and relocated it to the trunk. here's where it gets fun...


I turned the car on. Perfect. vah vah vroom. turned on like I just bought the car yesterday. Amazing. I realized I didn't notice whether it flashed a low battery warning when i turned it on, so I quickly turned the key to the off position and promptly turned the car on again. I screwed up. The car had not fully powered down so the engine came back to life instantly, and I still had the key in the cranking position and the car made the awful errrrrrrrrrrrrk sound. Then it died. I mean EVERYTHING. I had a brainfart (a big one) It happened so fast it took me a second or two to remove the key from that position once the sound started.


I tried turning it on seconds later. nothing. absolutely nothing. tried the dome light. nothing. headlights. same thing. I then removed the negative on the battery and reconnected it. I heard a beep so ran to the driver's seat just to see all of the red lights on my cluster lighting up. couple seconds later, poof. gone. still wouldn't crank. I tried the old battery, and the portable battery charger I have. nothing works.


my thoughts are....

ECU?
Fuse?
Starter?


I need all the help I can get.

Id keep the battery disconnected for now. Any burning smell? anywhere?

nope. not that i noticed.

From what i know that errk sound came from your starter engaging while the flywheel was still spinning. What were the red lights on your cluster you said lit up? no electrical pop noises? how much bigger was the battery? you check all fuses/relays?

any updates?

Sorry, I'm at school at the moment. I'll give a thorough update once I get back to the house.


the lights were the srs, battery, seat belt, ummm, and I can't remember off the top of my head.

the battery was only bigger in size as far as i know. the cold crank rating was the same.

There were no popping or poooofing sounds like that. just the awful eerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk sound.

and so far the only fuses I've checked are the ones under the hood. they appear to be just fine.

im thinkin the starter is pootched, or its jammed against the flywheel and cant return, so its like you continually have the key in the start position, so none of you lights or anything works, i donno just throwin that out there

Well im thinking you should pop out your starter and just check the teeth and take a flash light and look at the flywheel through the starter hole.....crank it back a little by hand just to also check the teeth before and after

best case scenario you just have the starter stuck out and its jambed up the starter so it wont move

easy fix just take out the starter and put it back in after checking stuff

semi bad case you fried your starter ....to fix just go get a new one.....

worst case scenario you chewed up the teeth on your flywheel and have to go get another one

worst case because you have to take the trans clutch and everything off

but im thinking its just caught but just to be on the safe side look at your timing belt and check that the timing is alright since you may have also jumped a tooth from the jaring hault...maybe.....

So you guys think that the starter/flywheel might be the problem? Would that really make all the lights not work, even the dome?

Seems odd but I guess it could be the issue. Any idea is better than no idea at this point.

now stupid question time:
Where is the starter, and how would I go about fixing the problem you guys stated?

Thank you guys for all the help so far, I really appreciate it.

It's on top of the transmission. Disconnect the battery completely first. Then buy a Haynes manual.

As for your lighting problem, I find that odd. But you said that you relocated the battery. I'd be wary of that. No offense, but you don't sound like you don't know what you're doing.

I run this in my cars. http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680t.htm

yea i found that odd too. ive never heard of the entire power of the car failing because of a starter. what else could it be? you open your ecu to check for any funky smells? did you check fuses n relays?

problem solved.

what was it ???

what was it ??? I am guessing something to do with the battery?

The wire wasn't thick enough gauge. It was 4 gauge, we opted for something thicker in the end. also, the battery I just bought somehow got fried.