Tad

OK my car just sat for like 3 weeks.
tried to start it up today, but got nowhere!

It looks like i'm getting spark and fuel
held the wires up to a ground while it cranked and saw little sparks coming through.

plugs look ok,
they had wet gasoline on them(which is why i say i'm getting fuel)

cap/rotor also looks ok.

checked tps. it's giving out proper voltage.

swapped the fuel relay with another one: no change at all.

tried a different ecu: same result.

all fuses are ok.

at a loss as to what else to try.
cam timing couldn't change while a car sat on its ***.

My only speculation is that i've had some problems with my heater/coolingfan fuse blowing out. Which I thought was caused by some frayed wiring harness due to a shitty tuck job (too near to the tire).

But I don't seem to see any blown fuses anywhere.

Any advice is much appreciated.

slowcivic2k

If your spark is very faint, could be a weak coil, or a weak connection to it. I advise you whenever you test for spark, to not do it for more than a second or two, and at a distance no greater than an inch. If you do not do this, you risk burning out the coil very rapidly, and compounding the problem. At a distance of an inch away from a ground should yield a very powerful blueish spark.

Was the distributor wiring hacked for a swap? If so you have somewhere to start.

Tad

hmm!
ok the spark definitely was not as strong as you claim it should be.

I had to put the end of the wire right up to the ground to get the spark to show, and even then it was faint and yellow.

slowcivic2k

Just so that makes sense to you, compression makes spark difficult, which is why spark gaps are small. But in open air, it is very powerful, as it does not have as much resistance to pass through.

If it has a hard time sparking at an inch away, or intermittently sparks at that distance, either your coil is going weak, or something is eating at the voltage before or after the coil and ICM, such as corrosion/weak connections.

Do you have a check engine light?

Tad

thanks,
I hadn't thought of it that way.
first time manually testing for spark at the wires, so i wasn't sure what to expect.

I have no CEL at all.

believe that I do have an extra coil, or maybe even dizzy that I can try though.

LeaveMeAloneClifford

Did you check the fuses in the engine bay? I ran into this problem awhile ago and everyone told me to check the fuses and I completely forgot about the ones in the actual engine bay.

Tad

yeah, checked them all.
i'm thinking about swapping out those
black transistors(or whatever those black boxes in the fusebox are) as well though.

Ames

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah, checked them all.
i'm thinking about swapping out those
black transistors(or whatever those black boxes in the fusebox are) as well though.</TD></TR></TABLE>

doulbe check everything

VN712

Are the icons showing when you turn the key in the "I" or "II" position? If there isn't, might looking into your ignition switch. I had the same problem 2 weeks ago.

Tad

yep, all the lights light up,

but what's strange is that when I put the key in with the door open, it doesn't beep..
but if it were the ign switch, I wouldn't think it would crank

i'm leaning towards ignition now, cuz it really sounds like it's not sparking like it should.


Modified by Tad at 7:42 PM 9/6/2007

Tad

OK swapped in a different ignition coil,
and still same problem

VN712

When you turn the key to start the car, does it wanna start, but cant? or it doesnt make any cranking sound at all?

Also, is it easy to turn the key or is it very hard? If there is no sound when you try to crank it, look into the ignition switch inside the steering column.

Tad

yes
engine cranks, it actually made a tiny bit of combustion when I first tried it this morning,
but for the most part it just churns and churns and churns, but wont' turn over

hatchi

try jumping it. maybe your battery is weak already.

Tad

nah, battery is a ok

Tad

bah,

ok I just noticed that I can't hear the fuel pump prime either..

sigh...
all wiring and fuses seems to be ok though...
battery has juice

Kegan

Can you hear your main relay click?

If not it might be bad.

teal_dx

My POS EK does this if I let it sit for too long... I had to connect jumper cables from another car and crank it for like 30 - 45 seconds straight. You'll hear if it is getting closer as it will want to sputter more and more, then finally it starts. I went through the same thing as you , replacing plugs, wires, caps, rotors, dizzys, checking fuel... I gues once in a while it just needs a lick in the ***.
I never had that problem with my EG though, only my EK after it sits for a month.

Phil_Eg

yeh i would say fuses...had same problem...

tenedor sports

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bah,

ok I just noticed that I can't hear the fuel pump prime either..

sigh...
all wiring and fuses seems to be ok though...
battery has juice</TD></TR></TABLE>

this is deffinately a main relay issue, you will find it under the driver side dash board, right above your hood open pulley..... its a large gray relay, these go bad on older civics, specially when esposed to hot temperature for a long period of time, the relay starts sticking.

I suggest you swap it out with a friends, and if your car cranks, go to the junkyard and pull one.

they can be expensive at a dealer...

teal_dx

yeah they are about 60 somnething bucks, I had to buy one.

also check the fuel pump ground, it is on the floor by the left side of your driver seat.

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kegan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can you hear your main relay click?

If not it might be bad. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I don' think it's the main relay,
that's one of the first things I checked,
I have a spare lying around that I swapped it out for,
and both yield same result.
Both click, and solder points inside both look fine.

Tad

Well,
I got it running!

Still not sure what the exact culprit was, but i'm guessing it was ignition/wiring related.

Fuel relay was fine, and turns out the pump was priming, just had too much stuff back there to hear it.

SO, I basically ended up cleaning up a bunch of shitty wiring,
swapping out plugs/ignCoil, tripple checked all the connections, relays, fuses,
made sure power was getting everywhere it was supposed to.
Slammed the throttle all the way open and just kept trying it till it finally sputtered to life.

Starts instantly now.

Musta just been weary of sitting for so long..