Okay so I have this 1990 RS integra with what i believe to be a b18b1 swap. This car has become a project. I picked it up for about $800 about 3 years ago and about 6 months ago the thing died out on me. So when it died out, the engine was cranking over but i wasnt hearing any clicking. I figured this had to do with some part of my ignition system but i couldn’t get my parents to help me get it running again. So the car sat for about six months. I have a new car now but i still want my da to roll around in. My engine was in great shape and im pretty sure i just have electrical problems.
So my battery was good when the car died, but at some point while it was sitting for 6 months it died. I got a new battery and i checked it with a multimeter it works fine. I got it charged at the junkyard and put it in the car, I got the same thing that happened before, the engine cranks but there was no clicking. So i changed the spark plugs and distrubutor cap because i happened to have the parts already. At this point I try to start the car and something shorts out…
So now my battery still has 12.7 V (working), and nothing in the car is getting power. However the car is draining the battery. So I obviously have some sort of short or something, maybe a blown relay?
I am a physics major and I have a good deal of working with wiring diagrams and using a multimeter and whatnot. I also am familiar with repairing electronic components like relays. My soldering and wiring skills are excellent (not to boast), and i would really like to get into wire tucking.
So finally my question to the community, has anyone ever done a full rewire like this? is there an article in the tips that i havent found yet?, Im willing to invest some money into this, but i want this to be purely DIY. Ill get my camera up and strip out the paneling to get some good pics of the wiring going on in the interior at the moment, as well as under the hood.
Im not the most experienced with cars, but im a smart dude and im willing to do some research, and buy the right materials. The person i bought the car from removed the interior to install a new speaker system and didnt reinstall the carpet and some panels properly. So far i have found some bare wires to the speaker system that might be causing a short, and also some unidentified component that must be aftermarket. this also has a bare disconnected wire.
update: like i said im new to this so im doing some research in my free time. I can hear a sound when i connect the negative battery terminal to the battery and it makes me nervous. It sounds like it could potentially be some arcing. Im gonna try to attach my multimeter in series to check the current being drained from the battery.
Is there a current value that is obvious and potentially dangerous to the system? The electrical system on this car completely blew out in one instant when this stopped working. If this is potentially fire starting, how can i tackle it. i know that about 50 mA is normal for the load when the system basically off and ive seen drains of up to 0.7 A. Is there any way to indicate whether or not this battery drain that i have is extremely serious before i start trying to rewire my first automobile. I have built keypads, motion detectors, led strobe-light systems, lasers, electronics for telescopes, and I specialize in rebuilding computers and basically wire tucking the physics and chemistry department lab equipment. But all of this I have done under the guidance of a master electronics technician. I no longer go to that school. And i no longer have access to his guidance. This is my first project and i want to tackle it on my own. I am willing to see it through and collect the tools i need to get the job done. Any help would be awesome.
Buy a Factory manual like the Helms. If you say your good with diagrams the manual will have this type of information. It will have skematic diagrams in the back of the book. If you like to get dirty and get physical, go to the local junkyard and pull out a whole new wire harness from the same year as your car and that it wasn’t molested by aftermarket electronics. And the factory manual is important. Like at my work. We follow procedures on book to build stuff.
Yeah, you need a manual. Once you get a manual your technical knowledge will take you the rest of the way. Based on what you’ve said you’re more qualified to do this job than 99% of the people on this board so I’d be wary of any advice and instead focus on reading the electrical diagrams.
You can start now though by pulling fuses both as a safety precaution and a troubleshooting tactic. Clearly if there’s a short somewhere then it’s either a) not pulling enough power to blow the fuse for that circuit; or b) shorting before the fuse. You might very well be able to isolate the short to a specific circuit simply by pulling the fuses. And if you pull all of them and the short is still there, then you know it’s a short before the fuse and there are very few areas where this can occur - just trace your wiring from the battery to fuse box and it’ll be in that section somewhere.
But don’t worry, you’re not taking on something that hasn’t been done before. People have pulled entire harnesses and replaced them with known good ones, and other people have “gutted” factory harnesses to do tucked wiring or simply for race car purposes.
Colin has the right idea. You seem quite proficient at wiring as-is, so I would definitely get a proper manual and get to work.
Yes, plenty of people completely revamp and re-engineer their engine/chassis harnesses… tucking, battery relocating, brake-booster deleting… People get crazy with it.
Such as:
There are, literally, hundreds of tuck-threads out there… Google searching “Honda Tuck How-To” will yield multiple worthwhile results.
update. I have the physical copy of the haynes manual and a digital copy of the helms manual. I hear nothing but bad things about haynes. From comparing the two i can see why. Im adjusting to helms at the moment and doing some homework. Ive isolated the drain to the lights. I was a little short on time and daylight when i started. I started pulling fuses individually and still had the drain. So i pulled all the fuses in the interior fuse box and started putting them back in one by one.
Tested - No drain
1 Turn Signals, Back lights
2 Power Front window (feature not on my car)
12 Cooling Fan
18 Starter Signal
23 Meter SA Unit
24 Alternator Solenoid Valve
Tested: Drain
3 Right head light low beam
4 left head light low beam
9 right head light high beam
10 left head light high beam
11. tail lights license lights instrument lights (day light)
Not tested (Will test later)
5-8 Power windows/locks (no power features
14 Clock interior, cigarette lighter
15 Sun roof (no sun roof)
16 Wiper washer (power window relay sun roof relay) (no power features)
17 Rear defroster relay
19 Front fog lights
20 condensor fan (no ac)
21 cooling fan relay
22 radio
a lot of the fuses were of the wrong amperage in the fuse slots for the features that my car does not have. I imagine these are simply spots for spare fuses in my case. Im going to start reading up on the wiring diagrams of these systems. Also Im going to see if it might start tomorrow if I have disconnected the draining component. Is this a dumb idea?
I don’t think the base models used those slots as spare fuses. I could be wrong but I think they should be empty and the base models have the same spare fuse locations as the GS and GSR models.
If you make sure all the fuses are correct and there’s no problems in the “accessory” and “run” ignition positions then I say go for it and see if it’ll start.
after a bit more homework. All of these fuses are related to the headlight system and i expect 19 to have drain as well if i were to put the fuse back in. fuse 11 is a the instrument panel lighting system and it will have to be checked out separately. There are a couple of wires that i found near the interior fuse box and near the radio that i will have to trace. Interior work was done on the car if i didnt mention it before. The carpet isnt set in right so thats an obvious sign that he fucked up wiring the aftermarket stereo. Really hesitant to plug that back in til i know if it was done right. there is some sort of red led light that he had installed aftermarket and i assumed it went to that. Ill post pics of it soon. Reading up on helms and gonna try to strip out the paneling tomorrow after i finish testing the fuses. Then im gonna see if the engine cranks.
new update, headlights, trunk light and interior light were all switched to on. So the drain issue is potentially solved. Still whatever damage i did to the electrical system remains. Apparently the headlights, interior, and trunk are all drawing power but it never reaches the component. I was doing some repairs with a friend and he pulled the plastic cover off the fusible link in the main fuse box under the hood. This was a 70A and i looked in the book and it is supposed to be a 80A. Anyone have any insight on the damage that I may have caused? All of these interior electronics worked after it broke down. I did an initial fuse check before i realized i had the battery drain. Changed the spark plugs, and distributor cap. tried to check the spark plug ignition wires and NONE of them showed connection for me to check the resistance (i wasnt sure if i wasnt establishing connection [im pretty sure i was though] but it seems odd that ALL 4 spark plug wires go out. I did not replace them yet however. I put them back on, with the new cap and plugs. Tried to start the engine and it cranked. Tried it a couple more times and checked the headlights to see if they were bright and thats when i lost all power. So these systems stayed on, and that was the drain i was showing. I think the interior light and the headlight was me fucking around after the fact. I think the trunk light was actually left on since it was working.
Anyway, now i suspect that the problem is the damage that i have caused to the electrical system somehow, and the initial cause of it not starting. I think I can conclude that I am the cause of the drain because i left these lights on. All fuses have been replaced and there is no drain. showing about 150 mA. Ill take that as a good sign since its the best i get with no interior fuses in the box.
I think my next step is going to be to check these fusible links and then start looking at the system all over again.
Can you do me a favor since you got your hands on this? If your car doesn’t have automatic seatbelts then disregard from reading. I have a drain on the automatic seatbelt system. I believe the fuse circuit is 7.5a in the engine bay fuse box. To bandaid fix this drain I unplugged the automatic seat belt module thats located in the passenger side kick panel area. Its a dull silver box with connectors underneath it. Or you can just pull out the 7.5 fuse. Giving that its a 91 GS model. With doing that, the drain disappears.
My favor to ask is can you test this module on your car? Test the battery with plugs into module. results. And test the battery with the plugs out of the module. results?
Just maybe your drain lies within the automatic seat belt system as well as mine?
just got my camera running and started taking out the paneling this morning. Ill run that test for you first thing in the morning. And ill get some pics up of what im dealing with.
