tonight (12:00 after I got off of work) I went to start my car up and when i turned the key it tried to start up 5 or 6 times and didn't, so i stopped, let it sit and tried it again. still nothing. my lights worked fine and i didn't have any warning lights so my battery is fine. i tried it three more times each time it clicked like 10 times. finally after five tries it started up really fast. it's 40 degrees outside so would the cold have anything to do with it? i don't think it would cause it to not start that bad. I guess my starter is going. it started up when i got home in the garage and turned it off and restarted it. it sounded normal. i have 65k miles on the car. could it be that i need new spark plugs too? i guess i'll have to have my bat, alt, and starter checked tomorrow. just wanted to hear some opinions. does anyone have a diagram of where the starter is? thanks...

 

If the starter was going, it'd more than likely only work for part of a turn. They develope dead spots, and won't rotate past that point. The starter mentioned below would turn over once, then stop on the deap spot every time.

On my last car, I put the key in one day - nothing happened. Battery was good, dash lights were all on. What was the final problem? The solenoid that acutally engages the starter's gear onto the flywheel was bad. $40 part. Incidentally the starter went a few months later. If this somehow turns out to be your problem, just go ahead and swap the whole starter.

The clicking you hear might be a relay that engages the starter/solenoid. I didn't have a relay at all in my last car, but honestly, I'm not sure how our CL's work in this regard. I haven't bought a shop manual and I haven't had a need to figure it out. Maybe others can describe how our cars ignition actually works.

 

probably the battery

 

it wasn't the bat because it wasn't sluggish when it tried to turn over. pluse my headlights looked nice and bright and i didn't have any warning lights. i'm putting in new plugs within the week and i'll get my starter checked out. thanks proaudio22. how would i go about checking to see if it is the solenoid that engages the starter onto the flywheel?

 

If your car make a loud clicking sound, it's definitely the starter. The solinoid (sp?) went bad. I replaced mine at 45,000 miles.

 

how much does this solenoid cost? does anyone have any diagrams that i could look at? thanks

 

i was going to say its the starter along with everyone else

 

I don't think you can replace just the solenoid. Unlike American cars (i.e. Chevy and Ford), you have have replace the whole unit. I got a brand new starter with a 100,000 miles gurantee for somewhere around $220. You can install it yourself. It take about 30 minutes if your DON'T know what you're doing. I think it's just 3 bolts.

 

some people have taken it to a shop to rebuild it, but I wouldn't recommend it. I had this problem last month, and it ended up being the starter...but to be on the safe side,
Check: battery, alternator, battery connections.

You can take your starter to get tested, but most places will ask you to remove the starter for them to check it. I had mine replaced once i isolated the problem. You can get one for under $200 at an autozone or any other place like that. If you have a manual, make sure you get the Nippondenso (or denso) starter, not the Mitsuba. The mistuba is only for the Auto trannies. And realize this, almost all starters (even if they are from a honda/acura dealer) are refurbished. So it just depends if you want a honda refurb or an aftermarket one.

The aftermarket ones typically have better warranties fyi. Oh and its just 2 bolts to remove, if I remember correctly its a 14mm and 17mm. Hope that helps! *breathes*

 

^^thanks a lot! that really helps.

I took my car to discount auto parts today and their machine was broken (sure it was... the chick was too busy on the damn phone). so then i took it to pep boys and they wanted 19.99$ so i told them thanks anyway. I called acura and they said they'd look at it for me no charge.

so they disconnected some things and started the starter and it checked out good, my bat was great, and my alt was good. the mechanic told me that it could have been caused by interference from the transmitter. he said that he's seen cases where people have multiple acura keys on the same key ring and it causes, on vary rare instances, the car to pick up a different signal thus immobilizing the car.

he told me i could either leave it with him over night so they could start it up cold and see what it does, or i could just take note of the warning lights ect. when i start it up. he also said next time (if there is a next time as I have removed the other acura key from the ring) to try removing the key and moving it away from the ignition completely and then putting it in again and restarting it. he said that if it was the transmitter not accepting the signal doing this would allow it to receive a new signal.

what he said sounds like it makes sence. just thought i'd foward that info to you guys as a heads up.

 

You said the engine clicked right? Dude, it's definitely your starter. If your ignition was mixing signals with the other key, the engine wouldn't even respond. Why have 2 keys on the same key ring anyway?

 

because i have two different cars...... he compaired it to trying to start your car up with just a hardware store copy of your key. it will click all night long but will not start up without the signal. if it was my starter it would have problems starting up all the time. it was just that one night.

 

It may be the key but if your starter is going out, it will only start sometimes. You wouldn't have the problem all the time. Once, I went almost a week without the car having any starting problems. When I did have problems though, I had troubles starting the car in the morning. In the afternoon and when the engine is warm, it started up fine. Good luck.

 

lol, i love having a 5spd, when the starter went bad I'd roll my car down my parking garage ramp, pop the clutch and it would start everytime