Fabrik8

Have you tested the battery, and is the battery getting charged? If the car isn't starting, and the battery is not dead, the problem should be easy to find. The fact that the problems you're having are load dependent points directly to a power or ground problem.

p2r

I tested for a key off drain, and its normal.

p2r

I will give that a shot today, and see where that gets me.

The battery was Brand New. The Alternator wasn't putting out lastnight for shit, and obviously that would drain the battery down. I'm going to have the swapped under warranty today, and replace the Alternator under warranty as well.

I also think there might be a minimal ground drain somewhere, so I plan on super inspecting the entire harness AGAIN today, and hopefully something will stand out this time.


Thanks Again For Your Help!!!

Fabrik8

I'll say it again, this is a problem that can be easily found if you'd look at the right things (like voltage drop between different points). If you haven't done it, do it, and the best time is when it's not working properly.

p2r

The problem is that it is such an intermittent issue that its hard to reproduce.


Where do YOU suggest I look for these voltage drops? In other words, between which points?

There aren't any drops between the following:

Battery to Main Fuse box
Battery to Starter
Battery to Alternator



I apologize Again. I'm more of a mechanically minded person. Electricity has never been my specialty. Don't get me wrong, we've solved electrical issues prior to this one. This one is just leaving me more or less perplexed.

I am going to drop the new battery and a noisy, but working alternator in there now. The starter has not been exchanged (for the 4th time) yet, so that still may be an issue. Nonetheless, we will see if she starts with a new battery or if we still have problems.

Stay Tuned.

Fabrik8

Are you testing these with the car running?

I would suggest you look around and see if there are any voltage differences between the different grounds. I've seen a few volts between ground locations before in cases of bad cables, etc. Whatever you do, there needs to be current flowing to test it properly. If the car is still not starting, that's a perfect time.

p2r

In an Nut Shell -

I have power leaking to ground somewhere around the distributor. MM reads up to 3.1V on the head by the cam cap/cam seal/vtec solenoid/etc. I went through and moved the harness around, unplugged components, unplugged the harness ends, pulled fuses, pulled relays, etc looking for the power to drop on the head.

Results:

-Unplugging the large plugs on both Ends of the engine harness made it drop to 0.0009V.
-Removing the ACG (IG) fuse made it drop considerably (approx. 0.0030V)
-Removing the Back-Up fuse made the Main Relay ..::buzz::..

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I am crazy tired now, and I have to get up early so I can drop a new alternator in my wife's coupe so she can get to work in the morning.

I'll report more later.

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Thanks Again!!

p2r

Oh, and all the current tests are with the key @ 0-1-2 clicks, but the car won't start on its own. (it would need to be push started as of right now)

b18b

You said you added/replaced ground straps. Where exactly did you add these?

Get some detail pictures of your engine bay maybe we can spot something you didn't catch.
-Thermostat housing
-Starter and wiring leading to and from it

00civichatch

I'm with fabrik8 on this one. An ECT sensor acting like that normally means a grounding issue. With it being proportionately related to engine rpm under load, I would get under the car with a flashlight and check your harness on the back of the block under the intake manifold. Look to see if any part of the harness looks stretched. I'm thinking there is a possibility that the engine is moving when you are driving and pulling on a ground wire in the harness somewhere.