joyrider58

I've got a '93 Civic DX 1.5L Had it towed home because it wouldn't start. Replaced plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. Still no start and no spark, but I could smell gas and hear the fuel pump. I checked the resistance of the coil windings and Ignition Control Module(ICM). According to the Haynes Manual these readings were good. I had the car towed. The mechanic wanted to replace the distributor with coil, ICM and oil change for about $600. I brought the car home and replaced the coil and ICM myself. I didn’t replace the distributor. Now I’ve got a spark but still no start. The car sounds like it wants to start but just won’t. New battery and strong starter. I checked the spark with a spark tester; it definitely jumps the gap, but not as regularly as I would expect. Thanks for any ideas

vanste

so you say you are getting spark for sure? and your getting fuel too... well check your timing and ecu, those might be the problem...

joyrider58

The mechanic that originally diagnosed the problem was probably correct. I didn't trust his opinion because he couldn't tell me what specifically was wrong. I was very reluctant to spend $600 for what appeared to be a guess.
Although I replaced the coil and then the ICM one at a time and did get spark, I still couldn't get the engine started. I bought a rebuilt distributor and got the car started after some heavy cranking with the pedal depressed. The rebuilt distributor comes with the coil and ICM as well as a CKP/TDC/CYP sensor. This sensor is not available individually and maybe it was the key. The coil and ICM were $140 combined and the rebuilt distributor was $175 so it was probably foolish to replace one piece at a time.
Anyhow, the car runs now. Thanks again.

Civette

all you did was foul out your plugs from all the no spark cranking..... when you floor the accelerator during starting it cuts off the injectors and thinks there is a flood condition. Ngk's are bad about easy flooding abd usually need replacing after it.

The_Honda_Guy

I've flooded NGK's tons of times on my RX-7 and never had a problem with them fouling out. If you wanna dog on spark plugs, we'll start talking about Champions and Bosch.