Turbo II

my buddy has a 93 Civic Hatchback DX. He was driving it around last night when it suddenly died like it ran outta gas. I went over to check out what might be wrong. 1st thing was little oil left in the engine. (thats what leads me to think the engine might be seized) 2nd thing, car still had plenty of gas. We even pushed his car to the gas station up the block from where he broke down to put a little more. 3rd thing, car would not pop start and the 4th thing, electronics still worked.

I drained the oil (whatever was left), replaced his filter and put new oil in. Pulled the spark plug wires out and turned the engine over a couple times. Plugged the wires back in and still no start.

what would you guys recommend checking prior to just buying another engine or doing a rebuild. car currently has about 161,xxx miles on it.

thanks in advance

mattssi

Check the main relay!

Turbo II

how would i do that? and where would that be?

DX Hybridizer

Rule of thumb. If you could hand crank the motor over as it says you did that means your motor isn't seized.

Yeah I'd say main relay or dist. Was there any indication before this off issues? Hard time starting ever? The above two are your best bet from my knowledge.

Turbo II

no issues what so ever prior to this.

Turbo II

ttt

Jimmy

iTrader: (5)

Do you have Spark?

Turbo II

yes, how would i check the dist.?

DaX

iTrader: (1)

are you pulling any CEL's?

Turbo II

whats that?

DaX

iTrader: (1)

CEL = check engine light...is it on? If so jump out the service check jumper under the glove box and see if you have a code.

Turbo II

oh no check engine light on. how would i check the distributor?

2lua

check your timing belt. it might b broken

scratchy

try to turn over the motor by the crank and you should be able to turn it over relatively easily if not seized motor

ErikDaGenErik

might be the ignitor. honda ignitors are somewhat notorious for going out. when mine went out twice, the car just died at a stop sign. it cranks weak but does not turn over. check that.

Turbo II

thanks guys, ill try it tonight and let everyone know tomorrow

DX Hybridizer

Also look at get a helms viia pdf file or the actual book. It'll give you step by step flowcharts on what to test and diagnose your problems.

Turbo II

alright, i took off the valve cover last night with the spark plug wire disconnected again. the engine is turning so i guess its not seized or else it would not turn over. next step was to check the main relay. all are there and plug in. no connections loose. my next step was to check if the spark plugs were foul. the spark plug furtherest to the right of the engine bay was just drench in oil. not the tip itself and not burnt out yet. the other 3 were somewhat mediochre. im going to replace those tonight for my buddy and see if that does the trick. can someone please inform me on how to check the ignitor and the distributor. timing belt is still intact.

thanks for all the help so far, it is appreciate because the sooner his car gets running i can have my daily beater back

trooper0641

same **** happend to me. car died like it was out of gas..and i had a full tank. spark plugs...sparking...timing belt was fine...crank but no spark to start it up...so i had a friend check out my dizzy...and it turned out that one of my coils was burnt...replaced my dizzy and it worked since then.

Pretty sure, it has to be your distrubutor.

2camsaam

I believe earlier you said that you are getting spark.

If you are getting spark, then your ignitor in the dizzy should be fine.
Sounds like possibly a fuel issue. Check fuel pump and main relay (fuel pump under rear seat, and main relay under steering wheel/column, to the right of the fuses inside the car.

You may even want to take your injectors out and try starting the car while someone keeps an eye on the injectors to make sure they are all squiring fuel.

Remember, 3 things start your car:
Timing
Fuel
Spark

Turbo II

thanks guy. btw how would i check for spark again. just wanna make sure i did it correctly

Turbo II

well problem solved. we changed the coil and it got spark. but after that the car wouldnt start, so we figured maybe a clogged fuel pump from trying to start it when it died on him. that wasnt the issue cause the fuel rail was getting fuel when we were cranking her over. injectors? nope! it just needed a good old pop start. :lol: thanks for all the help

doublejz

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DX Hybridizer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rule of thumb. If you could hand crank the motor over as it says you did that means your motor isn't seized.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Exactly what i was going to say.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Turbo II &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> well problem solved. we changed the coil and it got spark. but after that the car wouldnt start, so we figured maybe a clogged fuel pump from trying to start it when it died on him. that wasnt the issue cause the fuel rail was getting fuel when we were cranking her over. injectors? nope! it just needed a good old pop start. :lol: thanks for all the help</TD></TR></TABLE>

Glad its running