Nisif

Vehicle: 99 Civic Ex (Stock)

Problem: The CEL or MIL indicator light does not light up or flicker for 2 seconds when turning the key to the II position before starting. Car is not getting fuel or spark, can't even hear the fuel pump prime or the pgmfi main relay click. Come to find out it may be due to a "Sticky Scenario" read more...

I'm following the manual's diagnostic flow chart (I've attached both pages below in MS Word for reference) regarding the issue (flowchart image is shown below) and I've made it to step 5. Oil pressure light comes on, engine obviously doesn't start, both 15 amp fuses are good. In addition I jumped ahead of the steps and tested the main relay and its connections (it was good) and installed a 99 Civic DX non-vtec ecu to test it (CEL still did not come on before start up) and also checked the thermostat ecu grounds (G101).

Step 5 in the flowchart requires measuring the voltage for ecu pinouts B1 and B9. B9 had voltage (roughly 8 volts) while B1 did not have any voltage. I'm stuck at this point and I do not have access to the wiring schematics.

This is where it gets interesting...
One of the two connectors found below the intake manifold has been literally chewed up...at least 4 wires are frayed and disconnected. Come to find out the connector and a portion of the intake manifold had some sticky brown residue on it, took a whiff of it and it turned out to be caramel. Yes, caramel, so someone must of left a sugar daddy or something in the engine bay...I have no idea and the owner doesn't have a clue why. The car was sitting for 4+ months, and my guess is that a mouse or some rodent found a new feeding ground in the engine bay during the winter.

I have a pic of the connector below, my concern is that it doesn't actually connect to anything, I'm wondering if it's just a service port and if it would cause any issue considering it doesn't complete any circuit? I separted the wires so that they didn't touch or short against each other or against a ground and the CEL still didn't flicker for 2 seconds before start-up after doing so. Any suggestions welcome...

Pics of the Caramel Connector:

Ya Digg

Main relay?

Nisif

Already checked that... bump

pauley_lsvtec

check the ground at the thermostat if that guy isn't hooked up or is corroded nothing works at all. had this problem ounce after a swap and it was a bad connection at the tstat ground. i believe there is supposed to be 12 volts at each of those if im not mistaken i dont have the manual right here in front of me but you should be able to find it somewhere around here.

Nisif

I verified the thermostat grounds, they are all connected. HOWEVER,

I think I have it narrowed down. The connector that has the frayed and broken wires are a series of ingoing and outgoing ground wires. The connector is a "junction connector" C116 that joins a bunch of ground wires that combines the ground wires to the thermostat ground connection G101.

I believe the ecu and pgmfi main relay grounds route to the damaged connector pictured above then follow to location G101 (the thermostat ground) in order to complete the circuit.

I'll have time to repair it tomorrow, I'll keep you guys posted.

UPDATE: A little belated but someone pm'd me wondering the results. The problem was what I listed above in this post. The rodent chewed through multiple ground wires on the engine wiring harness. All of the ground wires routed to a junction connector which eventually led to the thermostat ground, thus the ECU was not grounded.