Hello, I need some help with my Acura Integra. The previous owner was my cousin, who has sadly passed away recently. Before he passed away, he had given me the car. However, the problem my family and I face, is that the car won’t turn on. One of my other cousins have told me that there is a sequence to turn on the car, and without knowing the sequence you can’t turn the car on. I am wondering if there is anything thing I can do about it, or go to someone for help. Any help would be appreciated. thank you.
Check the owner’s manual if you have one.
Was this car modified by your cousin?
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I agree with @mustangman. Your title implies that there is an aftermarket kill switch and you want to know how to use it. If your deceased cousin had some files at home, you might find the paperwork that accompanied the kill switch. If not, check under the dash, in the glove box, in the console, under the seats, anywhere he might have hidden a kill switch it might be in the trunk, too, if he was especially concerned about theft.
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Yes it has a type r engine, and transmission in the gsr. He was a car mechanic.
@jtsanders I will try to look for it, thanks for the help.
Ouch. If it’s really a coded kill switch, it’s usually slaved to one of the buttons in the center console - climate control or radio are the usual suspects. And because the user gets to select which button - or buttons - trigger the kill switch, unless he wrote it down you’re either going to have to brute-force it by pushing everything one at a time and trying to start it each time (which gets a lot more impossible the more buttons he used) or you will need to find and remove the kill switch.
The good news is that if it’s slaved to a button, there’s going to be wiring so that the kill switch can detect a button press. So you’ll want to dive behind the center console and look for wiring that shouldn’t be there for clues as to where the kill switch is.
The other option is to just bypass the wiring for whatever system the kill switch addresses. If the car cranks but doesn’t start when you turn the key, it’s a fuel kill switch. If it doesn’t even crank, it’s a starter kill switch.
The fuel kill switch is probably hooked into the fuel pump which if I remember on those cars is under the back seat. It could also be wired near the main fuel relay, which is under the dash to the left of the steering wheel.
The starter kill switch could be wired into the starter under the hood, or the ignition switch at the steering wheel.
Drill down to whichever component you determine the kill switch is hooked to, and look for a splice that shouldn’t be there. Remove it, and re-connect the wire to bypass the kill switch.
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I’m not sure what you mean by “turn on”. Does the starter run but not start? After my son’s Integra was stolen, I wired in a kill switch to shut the fuel pump off. It was just a rocker switch that I put somewhere around where the ash tray would be. The starter would run but the car would never start without flipping the switch on. So thieves would just wear the battery down.
So I dunno, look for hidden switches somewhere like under the dash etc. It should be somewhere out of sight but still easy to flip. Otherwise maybe gonna have to have a mechanic do some tracing.
I’ll bet there’s an actual toggle switch installed somewhere near the driver’s seat. But it is gonna be in a place where it is hard to see, possibly not visible at all. Get in the driver’s seat and feel around under the dash, under the seat, that area to the left of the driver’s left knee, etc maybe you’ll find it that way. If not use a good flashlight and crawl under the dash, see if you can spot it. There’s gonna be a couple of wires going to it that will likely be unusual in appearance compared to the rest of the car’s wiring.
If all else fails a shop with electrical diagnostic experience should be able to figure it out with the aid of the car’s ignition system wiring diagram.
Thank you very much for the advice, I will definitely look into it.
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Thank you for the advice, and where I could go to take care of this.
Yes all of the info you have received thus far is valid. I used to install alarms and remote starts and all sorts of trickery in vehicles as a professional. If you do not know what he did and how he did it you will need to look under the dash because he surely was under there making alterations…
In your vehicle the factory wiring is neat and tidy so you should be able to see what what done and undo it. When someone installs items like this they usually find it sufficient to stump the type of thieves who are just jumping in and trying to get a vehicle started using conventional methods…those installs almost always do NOT stand up to any investigation under the dash as they weren’t meant to do so.
You need to remove the cover under the steering column and start looking and it should be rather obvious what was done. Pay attention to the ignition switch harness as well as the PGM/Fi relay under the dash…those two areas are essential or rather…very good places to be going to disable a vehicle. If you described exactly what occurs when you turn the key and try to start it I could guide you more accurately as to how someone may have gone about making that condition occur.
I know this may seem daunting but honestly the issue shouldn’t be difficult to identify.
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Yep, in my case, I just cut the wire for the fuel pump and ran two wires to the switch (to and fro) to complete the circuit. So soldered wires with shrink tube under the dash is a dead give away. The car was totaled so no info to turn over to the new owner. The switch had to be convenient from the driver’s seat but also not readily seen and can be flipped with gloves on. Just gotta look a little.