Electrical Problems

I have a short in my 1998 Honda Accord LX and I was wondering if anyone could give me a rough estimate on how much it would cost to fix it! I know that it is expensive, but I was wondering if anyone had a number.
 
Thanks,
 
Erin

A short where?  What led you to believe there was a short in the first place?  What is the car doing?

because I took it to the mechanic and he told, but car has been completl cutting off on me.

Is this a Honda Mechanic?  Where did he say the short was?

You need to get another professional opinion. You are giving us zero information and expect an answer.....that doesn't work.
 

Well I did get the answer that I need and there is no reason to be rude!
 
Thank you!

Erin, the only person that is being rude here is you.  You have not read the posting rules, do not have a proper signature and are demanding help without giving the information needed to understand your problem.  The two gentlemen that have responded to you offer help on most topics and are among the most knowlegable people on here for general help.  I'm glad that you've gotten the help that you need, but in the future you need to realize that these people are trying to help you, so regardless of the discussion, you are not allowed to have a temper.

Otherwise, welcome to HAF!  Please read the posting rules and fix your signature.

Oh cmon.  Lighten up.
 
Edy7982 was probably just repeating what the mechanic said.  The mechanic probably didn't want to spend 20 minutes explaining how to fix it yourself...
 
Electrical work is funny.  The bill should say:
$2.50 for splicing a wire.
$125.00 for knowing which wire to splice.
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: falkore24
The two gentlemen that have responded to you offer help on most topics and are among the most knowlegable people on here for general help. 

 
Not Me! I don't know jack! 

quote:

ORIGINAL: edy7982

Well I did get the answer that I need and there is no reason to be rude!

Thank you!

woooo  .. my man,, think of it this way.
You are in the Ocean, in a boat ,fishing,, and you are asking the guy or girl next to you  ,, What kind of fish do you think that i will catch ???
Well ,,a short in the car could be anywhere , in different systems, it could take 15 minutes , it could take hrs   depending if it is a dead short or occasional short ,, but anyho,, Also you say car  cuts off.. Do you mean it dies ??   IF SO,
there is a bulletin recall on the ignition switch  ,, did you have that done ??
Going back to calling our members rude,, You could not be farther away from the truth ( especially  OO Accord  and RTEXAS ,, they go out of their way to help members and find the correct reply ) .. what makes this forum   GREAT  is that all the members respect one another .. We do not tolerate any abuse for any members or for other people seeking advices ( help)  just joining in..
..
What they asked was a ligitimate question that  any members here would ask  including myself  hundreds of times ,,, and that is
 TO GIVE US  more information so WE CAN PROPERLY HELP YOU..

What is the proper defenition of a short?
My battery constantly dies on me. Not while i drive, but wen the car is shut off for a long, sometimes short, period of time.
I have done a battery test and alternator test and they both ae working fine.
What do u mean bulletin recall on ignition switch?

Dazed:  At the top of the screen are links for recalls and TSB's (technical service bulletins).  A short is when a hot lead is grounded.  This can cause a whole slew of problems ranging from a blown fuse to a blown ECU.

It sounds like your battery is dead.  Was it tested for charging or just acid?  A battery could pass the acid test but have corrosion inside preventing charging in which case it wouldn't pass the charging test.  A short would usually have another problem associated with it rather than just draining the battery.   For example, before I got HID's, I had a high power headlight relay kit and one blew/shorted out.  When I'd turn off the car, sometimes it would keep the 1 headlight lit, but sometimes it wouldn't.  Either way, after a little more than an hour my battery would be dead.  Ripped out the kit and the problem disappeared.   Please check any aftermarket electronics connections and that all aftermarket devices are working properly.

Let me know what you come up with.

The term "short-circuit" is misused so much that it's just about meaningless.  If an electrical tech says 'short', then maybe I'll believe it.
 
If any random person on an internet board says 'short', I interpret it to mean any and all kinds of electrical trouble.
 
A normal electrical load that fails to switch off can drain your battery.  For example the trunk switch doesn't work and your trunk lamp stays on when the car's parked overnight.  That's not a short circuit.
 
You use the switch to turn on an interior reading lamp & forget to turn it off.  That's not even a failure, really, but it results in a dead battery.
 
A common problem with the ignition switch is really an intermittent open circuit.
 
A ground fault is another thing that causes flaky behavoir.  Lots of people call that a short...
 

Good points Jim.   A test for the trunk switch problem (or similar problem) would be to put an ammeter on the battery when the car is off.  There should be less than 1 Amp drawn off for the clock.  If there is a larger current then there may be a bad switch somewhere as Jim noted.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dazed

What is the proper defenition of a short?
My battery constantly dies on me.
What do u mean bulletin recall on ignition switch?

if you go to our DIY section there is a write up ( battery going dead) ,,
http://www.hondaaccordforum.com/Battery__Going_Dead_%3F%3F__CHK__For_Draw/m_17476/tm.htm

 it could be an electrical drain ,, Like Jim said,, there is something staying on, draining your battery , when it should be turned off ..

there is a recall from honda on ignition switch ..

quote:

ORIGINAL: falkore24

Good points Jim.   A test for the trunk switch problem (or similar problem) would be to put an ammeter on the battery when the car is off.  There should be less than 1 Amp drawn off for the clock.  If there is a larger current then there may be a bad switch somewhere as Jim noted.

Or maybe open the pass-thru in the back seat and look to see whether the lamp is on or off.
Then there's the glovebox lamp...
 
One amp is 12 watts.  That's kinda like the trunk lamp.
I think several milli-amps is more like it.  A 50 amp-hour battery would go dead in a couple days with a 1-amp load.  I've parked cars for a couple weeks & they started right up.  That's 300 or 400 hours, so that's gotta be way less than 125 milli-amps.
 

You're right ..... I'm just assuming that if it's a switch like the trunk, the light associated is greater than 12 Watts ----> 1 Amp.  The trunk pass-through is a good idea for that switch, but what are the chances that the problem is that simple to diagnose?

What if we say half an Amp?

Yeah, there's probably a couple lamps that are smaller yet.  5 watts for glovebox, maybe 1 watt or less (100 mA) for illuminated switches.  It's the general idea of looking for loads that don't turn off.

Sometimes electrical problems can really be nasty to figure out.  I had a strange one that turned out to be a wire frayed & came apart inside it's own insulation.  It looked good but didn't conduct electricity.  Took me about 10 hours to figure that out.  Then it took me all of 1 minute to fix it.  How does a 'real' mechanic write a bill for a job like that?

We're kinda losing track of the original question.

Edy...  Let us know if you want help fixing it yourself or if you just want to generally confirm that your mechanic is mostly honest.  Either way, we'll have to figure out more information before our advice can be very useful.

quote:

ORIGINAL: edy7982

Well I did get the answer that I need and there is no reason to be rude!

Thank you!

 
This is her last post.  I don't think that she's following this thread anymore ..... apparently someone pulled a price out of their @$$ for her.
 
   ---- How much to fix a short?  Are you kidding me!!!