00civicPOS

My 00' Civic EX died a couple days ago on the freeway, and hasnt started since. As usual, I tried the easy fixes first. Replaced the cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. Hearty spark is present. Wont even turn over with starting fluid. Made sure the fuel pump was functional, confirmed sufficient pressure on the exiting end of fuel filter. After I turn her over, pulled the plugs and there is fuel on them so I know fuel is making its way to the combustion chamber. Rotor does rotate(hence the spark) so im confident it isnt a snapped timing belt. I do suspect the belt may have jumped forward or back, and thats why it wont turn over. I just dont want to start tearing into the engine just yet though. So I did some searching, and seems it may be the ICM. Replaced it with no luck. I guess next step would be a complete distributor, assuming it may be a sensor inside? At a loss of knowledge and money. I usually work on larger vehicles, so I am by no means a Honda guru. Any help would be appreciated.

Humphrizzle

Check compression

Humphrizzle

And does it crank?

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

it isnt much to check your timing. pull valvecover, set crank to tdc, see if cam lines up

00civicPOS

Yea it cranks. I do no have compression gauge to verify the accuracy. I did pull each plug and sealed hole in valve cover with my hand to verify it had compression. Since it turns over, but won't start, I would assume if have to pull the timing belt cover to check timing? However, I believe the timing marks on the cam and crank would be hard to see since the engine is still installed, and parallel to the front of the vehicle?

TomCat39

With the valve cover off you can remove the upper outer timing belt cover and see the cam gear clearly.

With a dowel that you can insert into cylinder one spark plug hole you can actually tell when the piston is at it's highest point aka Top Dead Center (TDC) as you rotate the crank counter clockwise. I'm just not sure how accurate this part may be, I believe there can be a one to two degree variance before the piston moves from TDC.

A compression tester is a cheap tool, it's highly recommended especially for these kinds of situations. Without the test you won't know if the compression is a little low or really low or how well it holds the pressure. All very relevant for the engine to fire.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

really not hard to see the marks on the crank and pointer on the lower timing cover.

joey1320

I still don't get why people would go to the trouble of creating an account, submitting a thread and responding to it, all the while this time could had been used to diagnose the car.

So you have spark? Good.

You think you have fuel cause you see the wet pistons? Have you checked fuel pressure at the rail? Is the fuel clean?

Go to any auto parts big box and get a $24 compression tester. Do a test with the injectors unclipped or fuel pump relay/fuse removed. See what the numbers are. If they are low, inject a few drops of oil into the cylinder and do another test, if the numbers go up, it could be bad piston rings or just washed cylinder walls from the fuel.

You can also remove the valve cover, which will take all of 5 minutes, and inspect the belt, valve train and timing marks.

Good luck!

00civicPOS

Started a thread(at 9:45pm) because I was stumped.... Wasnt able to pick up a compression tester on my way home from work. But did I pull the valve and top timing covers off. Lined the arrow with mark on cam pulley and #4 seemed to be at tdc. Also, when turning over, can feel compression at same cylinder thats getting spark, so should be good enough to sputter- nope. Not sure what other avenues to follow... I tested map sensor for responsiveness to vacuum and the pcm relay for continuity, both ok. There is not a valve on the rail, so I havent checked the actual fuel pressure yet. Like I mentioned, I did crack the top nut on the fuel filter and there was quite a bit of pressure built up. Rather than buy a tool to check, I will pull rail tomorrow and verify injectors are operating properly, but I dont think its a fuel issue. Is there any other sensors that would cut off or prevent engine from starting?

bernie f

How did you test your spark?

TomCat39

I've seen others mention that the pulley mark and the timing cover arrow are for ignition timing. I've not had the opportunity yet to see how those marks correlate to the mechanical timing mark(s) of the crank gear and the back timing cover. Is the white mark in position of TDC ignition wise on the pulley and outer cover when the gear and inner mark are lined up?

I've been very curious to know this tidbit of information.

tony_2018

I've heard rumors that every few years, a honda gremlin pops out of the intake manifold and into the engine and cause havok, but it could never be confirmed.

OP tomorrow please collect the information that was requested and get back to us. If you say you have fuel and spark than its either compression or you jumped timing pretty bad.

Bob Dole!

Did you happen to pull the distributor when you did the cap and rotor and such? Did you put it in 180* off?

bernie f

I understand why he started this thread because I was in the same situation when I started a thread around April 1, 2014. I had a very similar problem. I understand engines but don't know a lot about old Hondas. There is a lot of knowledge and experience on this site. I made the mistake of testing my spark with a spark plug and thought I had good spark. I didn't use a HEI high energy ignition tester. It was my good fortune that I didn't find the original problem because I checked compression, timing, and timing belt and discovered I had a bad timing belt. When the HEI tester showed up, which only cost a couple of bucks, I checked the spark. I found out I didn't have enough spark. Using a LED test probe, I isolated the problem to a bad ignition module thanks to all the good techs on this site.