i have a 93 civic ex and yesterday morning after work i went to start my car and when i turned the key to power on, everything lit up like its supposed to but when i turned the key to start the motor everything cut out, dash lights, stereo, etc. so i turned it back off and then back on same thing. so i let it sit for about a min then put the key back in turned it and it started up just fine. Then today it wont start at all, if i put the key so that only power is on everything works, but as soon as i turn the key further everything cuts out and when i pull the key out my dash makes some weird blinker sounding noise for a good 20 sec.

a short in the ignition maybe? plz help

 

i read the sticky, and it has some of the symptoms of the ignition, but the rest dont fit anywhere in the troubleshooting. i really dont want to go out and buy another one if there is a way to figure this out myself, so plz help and ty in advance.

 

Bad connections at the battery will do that. Turn the headlights on and then see if they go out when you try to start. The headlight circuit does not go through the ignition switch. So if they go out too, you're losing power to the whole car from the battery.

 

ok well i am beyond confused now, but i also think its safe to say its not the ignition, i messed with my car for about an hour today and nothing seemed to work and i pulled the cheap alarm system out bc the box was buzzing everytime id pull my keys out, so then i read your reply about headlights so i went out to try it.

1. turned headlights on, and they came on
2. turned key to power on, everything came on
3.turned key to turn motor on and viola! car started........
4.turned car off then back on, started no problem

this left me utterly confused and wondering if the alarm was the problem all along? bc now another electrical issue i had is also gone since disconnecting the alarm, its a compustar cm1000a, it hasnt worked the entire time ive had the car but ive never thought anything about it really. could that have been it?

 

Sounds like whoever installed the alarm messed up some wiring or created a loose connection somewhere. If you've solved more then one problem by taking it out (and haven't created more problems) then I would say you've been successful!

 

ok well i fixed two problems but now theres a new one, so the car starts and runs, and now the tail lights dont flash when i shut the car off, but now sometimes when im driving and i brake the power cuts out to the stereo and my dashlights dim, but it happens at random

 

battery connection to the positive...try changing the battery connector and clean the positive wires and battery terminal real good..

 

Please do not reopen old dead threads.