Just bought a 98 DX Hatch today and while I was washing, changing oil etc.I left the keys in the ignition - after I was done I open the door and heard the normal "key in the ignition ding ding" I went to turn over the car and nothing powered up. No power up, fuel pump,main relay, no cabin lamp no headlights, no emergency flashers? The monkey wrench is the car has a Clifford alarm that was installed in 98. I'm owner #3. Owner #2 had no clue how the alarm works & neither do I. Just a hand written purchase receipt no manual or instructions - nothing. Just a remote. [/align][/align]So my question is do alarms cut all the power cutting out the flashers etc.? Or does this sound like a main relay instead? Need to resolve this before my wife gets stranded with the car won't start in traffic gig. [/align][/align]Any thoughts?[/align]

 

well if NOTHING works.... then id say its something else! cause only thing the alarm should cut out if the starter wire...

check your battery conections...... i know when i got my 99 civic the power wire was HEAVILY CORODED!!!!!! also check the ground wire as well.... most likely your battery just went dead.... try to jump start it or charge up the battery and then try starting the car.... id say ya just left something ON and while doing all that work it drained the baby battery all the way....
since its a new car for you id say remove the battery and slap in a brand new battery just to be safe!

 

Yeah pretty sure thats the problem. An alarm wont cut ALL of the power. If you have doubts, just try the remote from the alarm, and im pretty sure that wont work either.

 

The odd part of the story is that the car started fine 10 minutes later. Drove it today - no issues. Prior owner put a new battery in it. I will check battery connections andwater levelas well. Carfax report did show it was serviced for an electrical issue in the past. Incidentally the left flasher blinks rapidly however since it rained today it now flashes much slower. I was using the wipers so maybe this had some effect. 5 minute later the flasher goes back to it's rapid flash mode? I'm beginning to wonder if the car has a stereo stolen and the thief damaged the wiring harness back in 98? I have no proof just a thought. Remote for the alarm doesn't work in any way. [/align][/align]

 

well if the remote control for the alarm doesnt work anymore than id just have that unit removed or replaced....... cause if it has a starter kill wired in and the battery is ran dead the alarm COULD activate and the starter wire wouldnt work.... do you know how to activate the alarm system without the remote control?

find this little black button under the dash..... and if the starter ever DOESNT work... then put the key in the ignition and in the RUN position and within 5seconds push and hold that little black button in until the alarm sirn chirps..... which should ARM and DISARM the system... ive had to do it with my old impala cause the remote controls went bad
every now and then the car wont start from a dead battery or battery unhooked.... just something you should look into.....


could be another problem...

i know my dads 96jimmy.... well if ya wash under the hood or it rains... the truck just WILL NOT START!!!! but as soon as it dries up it starts up and runs perfect! we havent been able to track it down!
it could be..... you bought a car with the same problem that cannt be tracked down... so basicaly ya COULD HAVE bought a lemon....

 

Im having a problem the last couple of days and someone suggested the alarm might be the reason. i fixed two wires to the main relay that burnt the relay up, put the new relay in and the car still won't start, BUT if you pull the fuse to the main relay under the hood and put it back in the car will start, then if you turn it off you have to repeat the process. the fuel pump doesn't come on, but everything else seems to work. does the alarm have something to do w/ it? or is it from unhooking the battery that it won't start now? if that's the case what do i do??? thanks guys....also for wantacivicwagon my relay went bad and the fuel pump would take a long time to kick on (couple minutes, five to ten if it sat all night) until it just didnt come on one day.

 

i would go get that alarm competely taken out. any electronics storewith a car audio install bay will do it, but I have no clue how much they will charge you. it will take one thingoff of your list of possible problems.

+1 on checking the battery, and the terminals, cuz to me it sounds like the car wouldn't start because of a dead battery, but since it started later, it might just be bad connections.

also the fast flashing sounds like one of your turn signal bulb is burned out. the radio wiring would have nothing to do with the turn signals or the car not starting.

 

Yes you really need to remove that alarm and restore the car to stock. It's going to be nothing but trouble for you. If the car is stock, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery will not prevent it from starting, but who knows what your alarm will do in that case?

 

Clifford alarms come with a lifetime warrenty. if you have the original recipt then you should be able to get it worked on by any directed dealer (viper, clifford, avital, they are all the same). the starter interupt is really easy to undo anyways. just get under your dash and find the main ignition harness going up you stearing column. there should be one wire, the black wire with a white stripe cut in two running to a relay. just rehook the two ends of the wire back up to bypass the relay. if you can get me the model number off the unit i can get you a manual.

 

**FYI: Update**[/align][/align]Car went dead on me this a.m. no flasher - nolights nothing. Later I tried to start it and nothing so I turned on the flashers and headlight so I could get some indication if messing with anything under the hood would cause the connection to now work. I checked for resistance across the battery terminal and it was fine. So I moved on to the the fuse box - then as soon as I removed the cover the flasher started working. I check the resistance on one of the terminal connections while it was flashing and it I was getting a reading of 3-7 ohm's on each flash. Bingo! A prior owner or some employee was getting the bums rush from their boss etc. did not properly anchor the rearward connection. Looks like an alarm wire was attached to it. There was some carbon and evidence of isolated heatburns between some of theconnections. Turns out that the backing nut is buggered up.I replaced the screw and chased the threads with another. Works fine now. Should of been obvious to an installer. This is why I prefer to do all my own work. [/align][/align]Problem solved! Could of been really dangerous no flashers or any lightsin the dark in heavy traffic. [/align]