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Hoboceratops · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 156 Location: Atlanta, GA

So I sit in my car this morning to go off to school, turn the key in the igntion and I think it turned over twice then everything went dead. I take the key out, put it back in, nothing. No key in ignition tone, nothing. After a while, putting the key in the ignition just made it sqwak that tone at me for a split second and then cut out.

So I forget about school and set to doing this, try to gain access to the ground crown behind the dash, and notice something rather funny. There are only two connections to the crown, and 6 open plugs. Cute. I already hate my PO, this doesn't help. Reconnect the battery, and oddly enough, car activates when I put the key in the ignition. Wary of it, I wait a few seconds, and sure enough everything goes dead after only a 5 beeps from the car.

This happened once before, that time I got out to check the battery connections, got back in and nothing. Frustrated, I slammed the door shut. BAM, it ran fine. No such luck this morning.

So... while I'd have no problem replacing the clutch, I may as well be a child when it comes to wiring, any suggestions?
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1987 924S: Very much in love with it, even if it's all finnicky

Lizard · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:54 am Post subject:

this is a battery connection issue, clean the battery posts and connectors which attach to the battery, disconnect the other endof the ground lead and clean this point as well
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3 928s,

Hoboceratops · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 156 Location: Atlanta, GA

Yeah, just reconnected the battery again and got power back. I'll go clean the connection points, thanks for the fast reply Lizard. =D

Quick question though, why would slamming my car door have helped? I figured there must have been a bad ground near the fuse box or something like that.
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1987 924S: Very much in love with it, even if it's all finnicky

924guy · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 1:19 am Post subject:

there is a star type ground ring with multiple tabs on the firewall above the fuse box, sometine there are two of them. slamming the door certainly could have shaken it up and made one of the wires regain contact. i forget which gorund circuits run to it, but it might be a good idea to crawl under there, and clean and tghten each spade...
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Eric
78 924
82 931 SE "smokey"
99' VehiCross
Y2K Honda Insight
http://www.cardomain.com/id/924Guy
Performance by Pasha

Lizard · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:22 am Post subject:

could have just been enough of a jolt to a battery cable that wasnt tightened down enough to regain voltage.
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3 928s,

Hoboceratops · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 156 Location: Atlanta, GA

Yep, ground cable from negative terminal had been painted. There was only the suggestion of bare metal through the paint, so I stripped the paint, vaselined it up and reattached. Car had never sprung to life so fast; normally I have to crank it a few times to get it going, just now I turned the key and it started up on the 3rd turn. Good stuff. Thanks for the help.
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1987 924S: Very much in love with it, even if it's all finnicky