1997 Honda Civic won't start; stuck in park

Question

Last Sunday I was driving home and noticed my dash had no lights and my power windows would not roll up. As I pulled into the driveway to park I tried to put the car in reverse. As I did so the shifter would not go into reverse. So I put it in park and turned the ignition off. The car will not start now. I tried jump starting it and it did not work. It will not shift out of park without my shift release key. Please help. I have checked fuses and relay. I'm at a loss and don't understand what's wrong. I can't get a code because I have no power to the dash.

Answer 1

It sounds like your ignition switch is bad, and needs to be replaced. This is a common failure on Civics of that age, particularly on higher mileage cars. A replacement switch is around $70 from a local parts store, and can take a couple of hours to replace, depending on experience and familiarity with the portions of the car that need to be removed to access and replace the switch.

Answer 2

First, I'd like to try to clarify this whole situation a little.

1. Your car has two keys, correct? An ignition key and an antitheft key that fits a special keyhole in the shifter, which manually permits the shifter to be shifted out of (P)ark without using the ignition key?

2. As you drove home, you noticed a loss of power to the dash lights and power windows, and when you turned off the ignition key, you noted a total loss of power?

3. Now your car shows no sign whatever of having any electrical power to the passenger compartment, the lights don't function, the dash indicators don't function, the ignition switch doesn't energize the starter relay or solenoid, but you can crank the car by triggering the solenoid with a screwdriver?

If all that is true, then you either have a blown master fuse (if your car is so equipped) or a bad connection - whether at the battery or at the starter solenoid - that delivers power to the fuseblock, and through the fuseblock to the passenger compartment. A possible alternative explanation would be a faulty chassis ground plus a faulty engine-to-chassis ground, but a good battery-to-engine ground. I don't think you have a grounding problem, though, because the solenoid (which gets its required ground from the body) can be energized with a screwdriver.

If the positive battery post has one heavy red wire leading to the starter solenoid and a smaller red wire leading to the fuseblock (or into the wire loom), then that smaller red wire is your suspected perpetrator - it may have a poor connection at either the battery post clamp or its other end, at the fuseblock.

If instead, your positive battery post has only one heavy red wire leading to the solenoid, but the same stud on the solenoid also has a smaller red wire (still much heavier than most of the other wire under your hood) that leads off to the fuseblock or into the wire loom, then that wire is your suspect.

Last, if you have a vehicle immobilizer but its connection to a horn, siren, or other sounding device has been disconnected (hence the lack of blaring noise), then your immobilizer may be at fault here; it would very likely interrupt all power to the passenger compartment.

It's clear that your battery and its connections to the starter motor are still fine, since you can crank the engine with a screwdriver.

Answer 3

It might be the Body Control Module.. Erica drove the vehicle home- logically then engine and transmission are ok. The BCM controls the operation of the power windows as well the security system and I would hazard a guess the functions of the instrument cluster as well.