I recently purchased a 1990 240 coupe. When I bought it, it had no battery. The car was towed to my house today, and I put a battery in. When I put the battery in, I got the motor started but it seems like the electrical system is not working. My lights don't open(although they turn on), lights in the car don't work, windshield wipers don't turn on and so on. Could it possibly be a blown fuse? Or some sort of relay? All help is appreciated, thanks.

 

moved to "general"

 

hey man i was wondering if you figured out the problem....i am having the same problem....i was changing my oil filter and i have an sr....the oil filter is tucked under the intake manifold and its a ***** to get to...so i went from the bottom and i touched the starter with the metal filter remover and it sparked...then thats how i have the same problem...my headlights turn on but wont pop up...my panel inside guages dont work...clock, radio, signals, defog, horn, windshield wipers....i think you get what i mean....i checked all the fuses and they appear to be good....i called up a friend he told me i grounded the somthing so thats why it sparked...i didnt understand....if anyone can help please help....i dont know where to start from here....i checked all the fuses and i dont know how to check the relays....

 

fuses:
check them all.

relays:
check them one at a time to see that theyre all making contact and that none are damaged. perhaps that arcing out fried a relay. if they look good pull one out, see what changes when you try to run something. TRY EVERYTHING IF YOU'RE NOT SURE WHAT THAT RELAY DOES. put it back and try again, see if anything changes once the relay is back.

wiring:
yes wiring can be blown too, and this is one of the best examples of "WHY YOU NEED THE SERVICE MANUAL." look in the manual's schematics for all the systems that arent working. if they are on one circuit, then that circuit has an issue. if they are on separate circuits, look to see if any of the stuff overlaps. what may have happened is the primary suspect caused other wiring to be damaged... this is worst case scenario talk tho. good luck and i hope its only a relay since you say its not a fuse.

 

some fuses are in the kick panel, others are in the engine bay. I would double check all the fuses, and make sure u check behind the fuse box as sometimes there is a single fuse or 2 back there as well. if your prob started right after that spark, then it is probably the circuit your starter is on might want to invest in a multi meter and check the wires for voltage, too. Then you can figure out where the problem is. Good luck

 

to save a lil cash go to ur local junk yard and pop the underhood fuses, they can become costly, also u wanna make sure that the fuses didnt get wet, u may also wanna replace the entire fuse box.

i know because i just wired an entire civic from headlight to taillight, started it and some things were going wrong, so the last thing i had to do is changed the fuse box, they can blow.

 

i didnt know you could blow a fuse box. they should put a fuse in front of it (hah)

 

lol well ur situation might not be that serious, what happen to my friend and i was, we did a motor swap on a civic and someone forgot to ziptie part of the wiring harness and it rubbed on the altenator pulley.

2 wires made contact and slowly melted. we were on the highway and all we hear is a big boom and smell and see smoke. Almost every wire in the engine harness melted togather blowing every fuse.

I had to replace the entire body harness. kinda fun and painfull at the same time

 

The problem is that in 89-90 240's they used bad materials when making the frame and wiring. The wires on the 89-90 corrode internally. I have the same problems at times. Some times my break lights work, and sometimes my lights go back down, sometimes my fuel pump works.

Short of a complete rewire of the car and/or spacific things. The only thing you can do is get a 91+ 240 if you are already having the problem. They used much better materials for the wires and frame from 91 and up.

Hope this helps.

(Since my car was only 400$ I was thinking of doing a complete rewire. If anyone knows how much that might cost, please let me know so I can do my SR swap)

 

i think if you have an S13, a complete rewire is just a smart idea. you can move the battery and add sound system power wire at the same time, future proofing yourself for later mods. i really want a 14 cuz i love the kouki, but a 13 is still the thing to have, and if i ever get a 13, full rewire is gonna be one of the first major rebuild items.

 

a complete rewire depends on which way you want to go... the best way is to buy a new body harness front and rear...dash harness... and engine harness...that will give you almost every wire and connector for your car all the right lengths and correct wiring colors... now this is totally expensive... cost me 2200 to do an old integra of mine...

the second option is to rewire everything on your own... you will pkeep yout factory plugs but add your own wire inplace of the factory one... this is a pain in the ***... i mean total pain... you have to be good with a soldering iron... it is a long process as well there are a lot of wires in the car...but the advantage here is you can make the wires any length you want...makes for good hiding possibilities...

neither one of these ideas happens very fast... in most cases you have to strip the entire car of everything...not an easy task...good luck if you attempt this... my integra was down for 2 weeks while i did this...

p.s. good time to get the motor rebuilt and that color change if you want to have it painted...

 

oooooo...that sounds really cool if i was capable of doin so....i have a chilton and i barely can read that....i am not knowledgable to even think about attempting to do so....anywhoo....my car finally died on me when i was driving it home last night....i had a question...can it be my altinator that is acting up on me....because i drove it to the shop yesterday and like after 30 ft everything went back on....my mechanic said i could have fried some wires but he is not even goin to attempt anything until he finds the wire that all the power comes from...and also when everthing popped back on when i pressed the brakes all the electronics would turn off for a split second and come back on...but after a while it totally died....could it be that the altinator is bad so it drained the whole battery without recharging?? remember i'm not that great with engines so might be totally off so no one bag on me for doing so....i just wanted a slight idea of where i should start....rewiring my whole car is not an option for me right now....unless push comes to shove then i will have to do so....but yea...thanks everybody for the help so far....keep it coming though

 

test the battery... see if it is good or not... then pull off the alt and run it up to autozone and have them test it... you said you put a battery in it... was it a new one or a used one??? if it was new it should be good...take it to the parts store and have them test it as well...