2004 Honda Accord EX 4CYL

Sunday evening around 5pm I took my car to the car wash. I used engine degreaser and washed the engine compartment and rinsed everything off. Car started up fine and I was able to drive home and didn't return to the vehicle until the following morning (monday) around 8:30 am.

It wouldn't start. I figured water was the culprit so I left the hood propped open and hitched a ride to work. I live in central Texas so it gets pretty toasty here in June, I hoped any residual water would evaporate out. When I returned at 5pm the car still would not start up. I took a can of WD40 to it... still no luck.

When I try to start it up I hear the clicking, it just won't turn over and start up. The battery has a full charge to my knowledge, but just to make sure, I tried to jump the car and it still wouldn't start up.

What are my options here?

 

clicking from the starter and the engine is not cranking?

 

Correct

 

Have the battery checked. Did you clean off the battery? The caps have tiny little air vents, so if you got soap/degreaser into the battery cells... ??

 

I took the battery out and cleaned it off completely. The terminals are very clean and I made sure they were snuggly connected. The car won't even start with a jump though. Wouldn't that be an issue other than the battery?

 

Not sure about a jump-start. I kinda missed that part.

Would it start if you hooked up another battery to replace yours? (I mean don't leave yours hooked up the same time). Even if it doesn't physically fit in the tray, you can connect the battery cables & try it.

 

based on what you described, sounds like it's the starter, could be coincidence or from the water blast...the starter is fairly vulnerable where it sits on the 4cyl models.

 

Okay a few things

1) My CEL was on before all of this happened. It was related to a cat converter/emissions issue and it's been on for a year. I ordered an OBDII scanner to check to make sure that any new codes had not popped up. When I ran the scan it couldn't pull any DTC's.... even tho the CEL light is on.

2) the starter is a pain to get to but i got my hand in there and sprayed the connections down with wd-40. tapped it with a large file and hammer while trying to start the car up and it still wouldn't turn over. it's making the clicking noise and is receiving power.

Any further suggestions?

 

go get an intake gasket and while you're in there, may as well pull the throttle body off and clean it too, so get a gasket for that. then get a starter from your favorite neighborhood parts house and start wrenching, the worst of it is pulling the manifold and even then it's only about a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10...lots of connectors to remove and replace. it's like eating an elephant, you take one bite at a time...once you get her running, check the codes and report back.

 

Interesting... I've been trying to track down a starter issue that only happens when it rains or is a chili morning. This summer it has been no problem except once when it rained. It's not the battery and it's not the battery connections. I have a new starter in my car however I'm dreading taking out the manifold and cables and everything to replace it.