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Hello, I’m brand new to this site and forum. Pleased to meet you, everybody.
I have a four-cylinder 1995 Honda Accord DX with about 150K miles on it. (Yes, really.) Never any significant maintenance problems, other than a very minor front-end collision (at about 3-4 mph) four months or so ago. That incident didn’t have any obvious effect on the engine.
Starting a few days ago, I can’t get it to start. When I turn the key, the starter spins and I can hear a slight whine (as if it were starting to burn out). When I look under the hood while the engine is cranking, everything looks basically normal, but the starter seems to be turning more slowly than usual. I am not sure about that, though, as I’m a beginner at this. BTW the battery is fairly new.
The first time this happened was about four days ago. At that time, the engine seemed to try to start, but not catch. It fired repeatedly (I could hear it chugging), but it never caught and turned over. That day was also an unusually cold day. Then I let the car sit a few days (Thanksgiving, etc.) and tried it again today. The first time I turned the key, it fired once. Then I tried a few more times with no firing at all, just the starter noise.
The last few weeks it’s sometimes been starting hard in cold weather (like, cranking a few extra seconds before the engine catches). Just lately, I have had the occasional experience of turning the key and having all the electrical systems come on, but getting no response from the starter. Not even clicking. When that’s happened, usually I’ve removed the key, waited a minute or so, and tried again, and everything works normally. I don’t know if that’s related or not.
I don’t have the technical skills or the tools to do much repairs myself, and I don’t have the tools for much testing either. Since I’m pretty broke though (hence the 1995 vehicle), I thought I’d run it past this forum just in case there might be something simple worth trying. If not, anyone have any theories about what I might be looking at? Could it be a bad starter?
Thanks —
Nathan
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Replies
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Well for the simplest stuff –
If the engine is cranking normally, the starter is fine.Distributers seem to be a popular screw-up point on 4 cylinder honda engines.
Not sure if this would help but maybe try cleaning the spark plugs, make sure the spark wire ends (including the one from the coil to the center of the distributor) are not corroded. Solid connections. Also maybe try to remove the distributor cap and clean inside it.One thing – if you disconnect more than one plug wire at a time, make sure and label or make a diagram of where they go. It is real easy to mix up the plug wires otherwise.
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