markopolo

My 94 Honda Civic DX with 230,000 miles ran well until one morning it suddenly and inexplicably refused to start. The engine turns over fine, but their is no hint of any combustion.

I have already tested the following in an attempt to trace the problem:

• All spark plugs are getting spark
• All injectors are getting pulses as I tested them with a noid light
• The timing chain is not broken because the rotor under the distributor cap moves when the engin is turned over
• The fuel rail is getting fuel at the proper pressure during start attempts. When I checked at the fuel filter output I measured 38 PSI when the key is turned just before start position
• My check engine light is NOT lit (it always goes on for a second when I turn the key to the start position but I believe this is part of a normal test routine for dash lights)
• The air filter looks fine

Any ideas what I can test now to trace the problem?

I was considering checking engine compression and timing, but it strikes me as very odd that I could have a slipped timing belt or blown head gasket when the car ran so well they day before that start problem appeared. If there was some big mechanical failure I sure did not notice anything driving home the day before.

There was one small issue I did notice in the months before the car broke down. During this last winter there were about about three instances where I would start the car and the engine would die right away unless I aggressively gave it gas right after the start. The problem would immediately go away and I would have no issues for weeks. If the problem did occur it would only happen once during a day. 95% of the time, the car started fine.

joey1320

Have you done a compression test?

markopolo

I can do that if you think it would be useful in my case. I drove the car home from San Francisco (~60 miles) the day before and the engine sounded fine. It just struck me as odd that it could have a catastrophic mechanical failure while parked overnight.

mk378

DO check mechanical timing. Timing belts can skip at any time. Startup and turn off puts more stress on them than driving.

Also try:
Hold the gas pedal to the floor and crank for 30 seconds straight. This will clear any flooding.
Press the gas pedal very slightly while trying to start. This will help if your IACV is stuck closed.

markopolo

I just tried to clear any possible flooding like you described, but no success starting the car. I did notice after the start attempt there was some leaking fuel on top of the fuel filter that was not there before. This is perhaps a bit odd because I was pretty sure I had tighten the fittings on top the fuel filter enough.

I'll start rounding up the tools to for a timing test, followed by a dry compression test if the timing test comes up negative.

If anyone has any other ideas what to check, I'm all ears.

thursday

see if you can find a donor distributor to put in to try to start it. If the control module/ ignitor thing failed in the distributor you could be getting spark but too faint to ignite. This has happened to me a couple times in the past.