1992 Accord Dead~Not the Battery!

It could be the starter. Could also be the battery, cables, and ground. Have tests done.

At the very least, put a voltmeter on the battery then the starter while you try to start it.

I battery with a shorted cell will put out plenty of current, yet lack the voltage necessary to flip the solenoid to power the starter.

If you haven't a meter then you have no business under the hood. Take it to a garage. If you're in the U.S. some parts stores like autozone will diagnose the charging system for free; they sell a lot of batteries, etc. in compensation.

how do you /know/ it's not the battery? what testing have you done?

I swapped a known-good battery into it...same results. Doc

Have someone hit the starter with a hammer while you are trying to start it. If it starts the starter is bad.

It couldn't hurt to have your battery & alternator checked to make sure that isn't your problem too.

ok, good. but help people help you better next time - say what you've already done.

regarding the starter, yes, that is a typical failure mode, provided there are no other faults like bad connections, faulty battery or for honda, bad ignition switch. if the lights stay on when you're turning the key to the "start" position, the switch should be ok, so concentrate on the starter.

when starters get old, the internal electrodes erode so they don't make strong contact, and no/weak contact means no or intermittent current to the motor. it's unusual for them to fail suddenly however - this failure has probably been preceded by several months of slight hesitation before the starter motor starts to crank. if so, then i'd say you have your diagnosis without looking further.

depending on the starter motor brand, and your appetite/skill for the work, you might be able to buy new contacts and repair the starter yourself. but if not, just swap it a reconditioned one. if yours is denso brand, you can buy them from

but if it's mitsuba [most likely if it's original], don't bother messing about, just go reconditioned. if this is a vehicle you intend to keep on the road for a while, spend the money on either a honda branded reconditioned starter, or buy a new denso [which is almost certainly cheaper if you do your homework online]. a lot of other branded aftermarket rebuilds are cheaply done, nasty quality and don't last.

OK, here's an update. Bought a new reconditioned starter from General (local guy here) for 75.00 + core. Dropped it in and we're good to go! When I removed the starter it was original Honda with 165k on it. It didn't owe me anything! Thanks to all who chimed in here with good solid advice. As an aside, I chose to go to General instead of NAPA Fair Auto because they sell garbage. Autozone & Advance Auto even have better quality and stand behind their stuff, too. Anyway, thanks for the tips, guys and I'll remember all the sage advice next time I have a starter issue! Doc

Starter motors would last much longer if they had ball bearings/roller bearings instead of bushings. cuhulin

Worn bushings and burned contact points are two of the worst offenders in bad starters. Starter "drag" acts just like a run down battery. And many if not most cases of starter drag are caused by worn out bushings.

The Doctor wrote in news:257d04ee-c733-4420-9511- snipped-for-privacy@g18g2000vbn.googlegroups.com:

Weird how different people have different experiences.

My '91 Integra (a Honda), now at 353,000 miles, still has its original Mitsuba starter. The starter still works a treat.

but the starter life is determined by the number of starts, not the number of miles. if a starter lasts 10,000 starts, a trip average of only 5 miles will get you to 50k miles before the contacts are shot. but a trip average of 50 miles will get you to 500k. you're a two car family, so the number of starts on the small local runabout stuff on your integra is likely much lower.

-

as much as 40-50 per day is not unusual. Doc

The Doctor wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@30g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:

That would explain it. I drive a lot for work as well, but I'm restarting maybe only a dozen times a day.

Starter life is also very dependent on battery condition as well. When battery capacity is low, the solenoid contacts dont hit hard enough and arcing occurs, shortening it's life. I rarely replace a Japanese starter without the battery as well. HTH, Ben

i think your experience on this has been a coincidental function of age, not any actual relationship between battery and starter - if the solenoid triggers, contact pressure is spring loaded, so there's no relationship between battery health and contact pressure.

a couple of weeks ago, i started to have solenoid contact problems with a relatively new starter and battery. what i discovered was that the solenoid's slider body that carried the contactor wasn't properly lubed, thus it was getting slide resistance and not triggering properly. after being cleaned and lubed it now works great.

honda starting problems can be an intermittent main relay..bad soldering, easy to fix..

Mark

that's a completely different problem - the engine cranks but it doesn't inject.