jdmmostwanted

Wassup Honda-tech,

My 93 civic ex coupe wont start and i tried almost everything

Here's what happened.....

My radiator Has a small crack on the top which smokes alil if your driving around for long time. and i was coming home one day and parked the car, smoke came out so i opened up the hood and alot of smoke was coming out from radiator (due to lil hole thats on top) and i patch up the small crack on the radiator with poxy glue. so i waited for hour and i decided to mess around with the amp in the back seat and i believe i had to much bass and when i crank the volume up half way my amp fuse blew.I went out bought fuse's for the amp.Now when i go to start the car it doesnt start...it cranks but theres no fire.I dont hear my fuel pump turn on i dont hear non of my relay switches click besides one which i can hear when im about to turn the car on i hear a click somewhere on the passenger side.Another thing is my check engine light, when i turn the key to the on position my check engine light comes on and doesnt turn off after 2 seconds. I also i took out my Ecu to check it out and i notice my check engine light comes off. So iunno if thats any signs of my Ecu is bad or what.

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That same day i had mechanic take a look at it and he did the spark test, (where you stick a screw driver into the plug and crank the car to check for any sparks) and nothing no sparks.
We then Checked the all the fuse boxes for blown fuses.I found couple of them blown.
1.fuse box near the battery had 1 blown fuse which was a 10 i cant remember what it belong to
2.fuse under the driver side area had 2 blown fuses.
Now i replaced all of them i checked every single one to make sure i didnt miss any blown fuses.

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Now Mechanic told me to start the car still nothing.It cranks but still NO sparks.And you can smell the gas so theres fuel coming in.

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Next thing we did was checked the distributor.The Mechanic tested the wires on top of the distributor and Said that how "theres power coming into the distributor but theres no power coming back out." and told me that the coil and something else inside might not be good.I went bought a new distributor pop that one on and tried starting the car and nothing.Same thing over and over.So now I have no clue whats up with the car.Someone told me it could be that i might've blown the computer or some other relay switches that are located under the dash board or electrical overload.But i have NO clue

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Can someone please help me out here.What to do and what to look for that can help my car up and running again.thanks and merry christmas and happy new year everyone!

z6hatchboy

You said before you didnt hear your fuel pump turn on, maybe thats the mainly relay, but you also smelled fuel? Check the the code the ecu is throwing, theres a thread at the top of this forum, checking cel's or something. Lastly did you have the ecu in that car after you put the distrib. you bought on? Check the code though, sounds like a main relay or distrib. problem (igniter, coil?).

lsvtecSIrex

the ecu light stays on? pretty sure that means a bad ecu. try one of your friends ecu's. did it over heat when your radiator was leaking? coulda lost a head gasket?

dayne808

could be acg fuse next to the srs one try that one

jdmmostwanted

iunno but its pretty weird i believe its a bad ecu and some told me that i might have a bad ecm. but im sure ecm and ecu is the same thing there talking about... i hope

jdmmostwanted

funny thing about that too is i replaced all the fuses.. after the amp blew alot of fuses under the dashboard and under the hood was blown so i think i might've fired the crap out of my ecu or what they call a electrical overload

jdmmostwanted

imma have someone check the code for me but it cant be the distributor because i bought 3 different distributors 2 vtec and 1 non vtec and there were all new i sold all of them and kept the newest one.. person i sold the distributors too called me and told me all of them work.. so there goes bunch of money down the drain. i bought the hole distributor not just the cap and rotor but hole complete distributor..

lsvtecSIrex

thats why you dont buy parts and hope it fixes it.. find the problem first. is it throwing codes? if you think its the ecu just try someone elses... pretty much any ecu of the the obd will start it

jdmmostwanted

true i have spent alot for nothing but i believe my ecu is toast cause CEL doesnt come off and all i get is one click when im about to start the car and the click is coming somewhere from my passenger side.. but i want to know how to check the codes for my ecu like how to preform the test i heard someone used paper clip... can someone help me out here?? i do know if i get a code 0, mean my ecu is shot. so im hoping its a code 0 lol

jesstopher2nr

man i got the same problem. but instead of messin with an amp it was installing a cd player plus mine is a 95 ex coupe. it sounds like to me that it is your ecu and probly mine to. its defintly an electrical cause mine started and everything up intil i installed a cd player and replaced the stock speakers. i didnt think that it was the cd players problem at first cause it had a lil problem starting once or twice before and that was it. i also went out and replaced the distributor cap and rotor button. plus i got new spark plugs and spark plug wires. and nothin happend. so what it could be is a bad ground so check them. i need to check mine to so if i do before you and it works ill let you know. plus my check engine light my e-brake light and oil light and my clock and etc. wont come on but my gauges light up and everything. and if you fined out whats wrong with yours let me know. i just made an account to comment this forum cause i got the same exact problem so let me know. and ill let you know as well. oh and i even had the radiator problem as well but i just bought a new one it ran great until now.

jdmmostwanted

o wow... its funny how small things can cause a car not to start.... well i tried replacing the ecu today i went out and bought new ecu which is po6 ... and CEL ( check Engine Light) is still on.. i tried cranking it and nothing im getting the same results.. cranks but doesnt turn over.. it has to be electrical i replaced so far the ecu main relay the whole distributor batteries and nothing soo.. if you can fix yours or find out whats the problem let me know as welll.. but im going back out trrw to try to read the codes off my ecu and see whats up but funny thing is that when i key is at 0 and i turn it to II i dont hear any clicks at all when i turn the key to III... no clicks so my car is pretty messed up bad ...

jesstopher2nr

im gonna have one of my buddies whos good with wiring come and take a look at but that probly be later this week so ill let you know how that went. we'll probaly have to rewire the hole damn thing tho. and i also dont hear any clicks.

Funanin

engines require 3 basic things to run, fuel, spark and compression. Find out which one it is not getting and go from there. From what u said it sounds like spark. So look thru the relays, wiring distributor, even trace it all the way back to the computer and swap one out for a buddies if it comes down to it. good luck man

remember, even if u have spark and fuel, timing is part of compression as well as all mechanical works inside the motor. I never heard of this screw driver idea, but i test for spark by pulling one plug, grounding it and turning the motor to see if it fires while connected to the distributor still. U can ground it with some battery jump cables to the frame.

Then if it is a no, but it worked before, its most likely not the distributor. Go further, look at fuses, relays and eventually the computer as stated before. once again, good luck.

Also, if it is for sure not getting spark, you have to find out why. Spark is an output from the computer. The computer has to have the right inputs, for it to output correctly. Sensors provide inputs to the computer. One sensor that really comes to mind that would cut off spark is the crank position sensor. If the computer has no idea where the crank is, it will cut off spark entirely. Could be another sensor, but its most likely one of the inputs is bad.


Modified by Funanin at 1:32 PM 1/7/2008

jdmmostwanted

kool.. please tell me if you get it start and what was the problem ... thanks

jdmmostwanted

true what your saying... but if check engine light is on... neither the fuel pump or spark is gonna work... i tried almost everything beside ripping the car apart lol. well today i went out to find error codes off my ecu ... i did the paper clip test with the 2 pin covered in the green plastic , when i insert the paper clip in the 2 pin and turn my key to on position my check engine light stays on and it doesnt even blink to let me know if theres any codes or not... but what i dont get is if i did the paper clip test and check engine light stays on what does that mean??...

Funanin

no offense, but my guess is you didnt do it right, heh

jdmmostwanted

lolz.... iunno if i did or didnt but i followed the instructions on this site what i did was i sticked paper clip in 2 pin plug on both holes and turn the key to on position... iunno if its suppose to been done that way but way i seen it on this site was..

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/1901557

let me know if thats the correct way to get ecu

dayne808

main ground on thermostat housing? did you try that

jdmmostwanted

naahhhhhhh... i forgot about that ... ill have to check that out later today

B18C5-EH2

Recheck ALL fuses - including the large main fuses in the under hood fuse box.

When I say "check" I don't just mean look at them. Take a test light and check BOTH sides of the fuse, and if need be, pull every single fuse out one at a time and replace them. Sounds crazy? Sounds tedious? It's still cheaper than buying expensive other parts.

Also unless you have actually FIXED whatever is blowing fuses replacing fuses alone isn't going to do anything.

Sounds like you've got a clusterfuuck on your hands bro - good luck with it.

jesstopher2nr

hey mann i didnt have that guy rewire anything but we did check a lot of **** tho. all the gronds and **** like that. but mine were good. he told me to take my distrubtor to auto zone or some place that tests it for you and to check it. and im not gettin spark or fuel. are you?

jesstopher2nr

hey i had that guy come over and he went through all the fuses and he determined that it was either was to replace the fuse panel or the ignition wire by the steering wheel and ****. i havent fixed mine yet but i didnt replace them either so check them and also recheck your fuses to. good luck.

jdmmostwanted

hmmmm ..... sounds interesting imma have a guy take it look at it and to see if thats the same case if so i aint waiting any more longer i want my car on!!! lol.. thanks for the info

jesstopher2nr

no prob but it also could be a bad ecu im gettin mine fixed this weekend hopefully. good luck tho

jesstopher2nr

well it wasnt my ecu, but pull up your codes and see what it is?