96 honda civic dead. no lights. no turn over. nothing....

Asked by Dee Jul 27, 2020 at 08:24 PM about the 1996 Honda Civic EX

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

so i have a 96 honda civic. Good car. She is called sally. not too many
issues. last week i was driving and she just shut off. at first i thought she had
ran out of gas. She was low but not out. tried to crank a few times and she
would turn over but never crank. I had to end up getting her towed home.
Now nothing. she is completely dead. no power at all. no turn over. no lights.
no click from the starter. Nothing. not one peep. This car is my backup and i
need to keep her. HELP. on car knowledge im probably a 2. but  before i take
her to the shop i would like to have a general idea of what is wrong with her.
these are hard times. I know i should let a professional look at it, and that is
my intentions, i just dont want the extra cost of trouble shooting.
is there anything that i can check on my own. Im a lady but im very
resourceful. my first step is fuses and relays. what next.?
what does it sound like to you guys?
and questions and ill reply. If it was a starter issue would it shut off while
driving?
fuel pump?
starter?
alternator?

2 Answers

10

I think it sounds like your alternator went and drained your battery. Have you tried jumping the battery?

10

Sorry I should say that a bit better. I think it sounds like your alternator crapped out and your battery was powering everything until it went dead. You should, if you haven't already, try charging your battery. If your car starts, you can test the alternator by disconnecting the positive terminal (red) on your battery. If the car shuts off your alternator needs replacing. If it stays running with the battery disconnected it is something else. The starter would not cause the car to shut off when running it only cranks the engine during startup which you said it was doing initially so it doesn't sound like the starter. You said it was a 96 civic, I once had a 92 civic and it had a distributor. The other thing I might check is that everything is tight with that. Look up distributors on YouTube for some help troubleshooting that. I'm not that great with cars myself but I think these suggestions may help. Keep us updated please

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