Teglessb18

So I live in Chicago and the parking sucks. Seriously the neighborhoods are still not really plowed. I cannot get my car started since Tuesday when I parked it. I popped the hood and the motor was engulfed in snow. 95 civic ex with og motor. I cleared out under the motor and I can see the bottom of the motor now. It is not the battery as all the electronics work and it turns over in effort to start. Its not the fuel pump or main relay as it primes and then clicks. My thought is it is some electrical connection that shorted out from the motor being engulfed in snow for about 10-15 hours. Can anyone offer some insight into this or suggestions. Thanks.


On the plus side at least no one can steal it right now as it wont start unless they tow it which would be pretty hard at this point. lol.

JDMxTai

I wanna say Hydrolocked since you said snow covered Bottom end or something like that. But it's just snow so i doubt it. Ice in Fuel line? Use Heet lol.
Sorry, lol I'm not sure what to tell you.

Teglessb18

I doubt its hydrolocked as the car turns over just fine. I doubt enough snow would get through the resonator and then through the filter then into the throttle body to make the hydrolock. I guess it could be but I do not know what cars do when they hydrolock? I would assume they do not turn over anymore???

JDMxTai

Sorry didn't read the part about Engine turns over but, Get a multimeter and check battery. it may have enough juice to keep electronics working but probably not enough to power the starter.

Linked

AFAIK a sorta healthy crank will be enough to start the engine. based on what i've been through, the battery would crank about a quarter as fast as it should and still spark up

but in your situation, charge the battery anyway to rule it out

Teglessb18

I will try a jump tomorrow but I still doubt. Although it wouldn't help to rule that out.

Teglessb18

oh and it cranks over just fine it just wont fire which is leading me to believe it is some sort of spark or fuel issue.

Teglessb18

anyone else have any ideas?

NotAJDMFanBoy

Are you getting spark? Did you knock anything loose when cleaning the snow away?

BrothaSit

i would check to see if you get any spark first then go on from there

hatchet_honda

how did the engine bay get covered in snow? was the hood not on? didnt get any snow on my engine. i live in indiana bout 40 min from the city. we got hit pretty dmn bad with that storm too. almost 3 feet covered my si hatch. lucky the b16 ef was in my garage. sounds to me you have no spark. id try some starting fluid into the TB to see if she fires at all

snow sucks

Teglessb18

I am going to check for spark here this weekend. I dont know how I got snow in the engine bay. My car is lowered and my hood was on yes lol. I will upload some pics later today when I get home from work but I had to take a shovel/broom under the car just so I could see the underside of the motor. It was on the ground and up to my block. Also there was snow on all the radiator hoses and intake manifold as well. Not much on those but still a bit.

92lxsleeper

take the distributor cap off and see if snow got inside. clean it out, sand the points and the rotor and it should be fine afterwards.

djslim23

how the hell does this happen? Anti-gravity snow? Weird. Anyways, it is possible to slightly hydrolock a car, I've done it. Doesn't happen from just sitting though, unless the squirrels shoved some in your intake and then peed on it.

Teglessb18

well no it was not anit-gravity snow but the wind was pretty crazy that night and it just built up i guess. I have no real explanation for it except that I would like to get my car running. Also I very highly doubt my car is hydrolocked since I havent even driven it all I have dine is tried to start it.

Teglessb18

tried jumping it this weekend. Ruled that one out just as I suspected. I will test for spark this week when I get a chance and the snow/cold subsides.

Wrona

My car just did this here in denver after a snow storm i put 91 fuel into my system and HEET Fuel injector cleaner and changed my sparkplugs to NGK G-Power and my motor sounds like new now

Teglessb18

Finally got some bearable temps today. The car has spark and the cylinders smell like fuel. I think the next step is to verify for sure if it is getting fuel. Probably check fuel pressure. Any other ideas?

Former User

Any CEL codes?

Is spark bright white at all four plugs? Is the mechanical timing off by a tooth or two?

Have you compression tested the cylinders?

Teglessb18

no cel codes as my engine light is not on. I only tested 2 cylinders but I will go test the other two later. I didn't really watch for bright white but there was definitely spark when I grounded the spark plug to a bolt. I do not know if the timing is off havent checked and no I have not compression checked the cylinders but I can do that as well. I will spark check all 4 cylinders again and compression check at the same time. Hopefully I can get a chance this week. I will report back my findings.

Former User

Does the CEL work?

Teglessb18

Yes my engine light works, I turned the ignition to start II and the light comes on while the fuel pump is priming and then goes off when the relay clicks. I just went out and checked spark on all 4 cylinders and it seems like it is a weak white closer to orange spark. I have a feeling it is the distributor rotor. Never opened the distributor up before what should I be looking for?

Former User

Weak spark is generally the sign of a blown coil.

Teglessb18

Is there a way to test the ignition coil before just getting a new one?

Former User

You'll find a diagram in the FAQs sticky.