calabschultz600

Hello everyone! I currently have a 1999 civic 4 door that I drive, its an lx 5 speed 210,000 miles. I love hondas, I have had them for the past 6 years and refuse to drive anything elese. Anyways my current civic started acting up on me last week it was missing a little bit one morning while my car was warming up. I left the house and is was missing like it was running on 3 cylinders. I took it to my buddys house who has a scanner. The codes we got were cylinder 1,2,3,4 missfire code and a general missfire code I drove it home and started driving my truck for a few days figured the distributer was going bad. I felt like it was missing but when I got up to crusing speed it felt fine but if I got it in higher RPM's the engine light would flash, if I pushed in the clutch and shot the key off and turned it back on it would quit flashing until I got it up in the rpm's again. Now it wont start at all. I went to a junkyard and got a distributer and put it in and it still wont start. If you unplug the dizzy it will crank over just fine but when its plugged in it will crank for 3 or 4 seconds and the motor will sounds like it stops for a second then starts to crank again. I thought it might be 180 out but when I went to spin it and flip it 180 and it didn't want to go in so I did some research and found out it really only goes in 1 way. Can anybody help? If you need more info let me know what you need. Hopefully someone can tell me what's going on?

Former User

Is your battery low on charge?

How do you know that the distributor you installed is any good?

Are the plug wires installed in the correct firing order on the cap?

When were the plugs and wires last replaced?

Have you replaced the fuel filter?

calabschultz600

Im not sure the new new one is good. The plugs wires are good, the battery is charged and I don't know when thefuel filter was last changed. Im just wondering why it will crank fine with the dizzy unplugged but when you plug it in it will crank for a few seconds then sound like it just quits cranking for a second and starts cranking again? Does it sound like maybe I got another bad dizzy? Or Could it be possible that the timing belt jumped? The timing belt has about 50,000 miles on it and is a factory honda belt changed at the dealer.

Former User

Carefully consider each question I posted.

calabschultz600

Plugs and wires and cap were just done 5000 miles ago or less and are on correcly. Battery is good. The only thing I am unsure on is the fuel filter. I am getting spark from the new dizzy but don't know if it was normal?

Former User

Replaced with new or used parts?

How do you know?

Just replace it. Cheap part.


Spark should be bright white. If it is orange, yellow, or deep blue, it usually is not hot enough to ignite the fuel. Test the coil and igniter unit, or find another distributor.

calabschultz600

It was blue. How can you test the coil or ignitor?
The only reason I am putting a used distibuter on it is because a new one is 265 bucks and I only paid $1000 for the car, its just my work car/ daily driver used to save gas. Is there anyway to test the distributer other than pulling plugs? I didn't know if you could OHM it out or anything? I had the battery tested. I am getting fuel because the plugs are wet. Im not a newbie to working on cars. I worked at a ford dealer as a tech for 8 years, just never really worked on Hondas much.

Former User

I think you understand that my questions are reasonable and relevant to your car problem.

You'll find a diagram in the FAQs sticky on Ohm testing the coil.

AutoZone will test the ICM free of charge, if you remove it from the car.

Former User

Here's how the mechanical timing should look:

calabschultz600

Yes I know and I really aprriciate the help! I was just letting you know I have worked on cars so you would know that I have checked the basics. I was just hoping maybe someone else has had the same problem and could tell me what happend to them. One last question, what are the chances if any that it jumped time? Im just kinda concerned because I found out it is an interference motor. From the sounds of it I think I might have got another bad dizzy.

Former User

Fix the weak spark problem and then go from there. If the car still won't start or run well with bright white spark, then check the mechanical timing.

And as I mentioned earlier, also replace the fuel filter to cover all the obvious bases.