Figgy1682

Well i started my car and started fine, i back out my parking spot and it was fine. i put it in first and go the car kind just stopped, almost liked i stalled. I went to restart the car and it wont start. the car is cranking, im getting fuel cause i can smell it as im cranking and here the pump push, its getting spark except the 2 and 3 cylinder spark is a little weak. shes cranking strong but nothing, any ideas of anything else check or thoughts on what it could be? all help is greatly appreciated.

CrxChicken

sounds strange
had it been running fine before this?

had you had any problems with the car starting in neutral? maybe a neutral switch?

did you just buy gas? could be bad gas but probably not

could be the coil..

Do you have a friend .. if you do have them crank it and you take the oil filler cap off the valve cover ... make sure the valves are moving..

if you can detach the fuel line get a milk jug stick the line in it crank it and see if you get a few ounces ... actually you should be able to get fuel with just the key ON

Not sure what else right now..

Most likely not the Main Relay if you get fuel and it cranks
not the ECU ...
You can always check your fuses but.. probably not

Could be a sensor .. TPS or other.. do you get any warning lights .. does your ECU center light blink.. Pull back your passenger side carpet see if your ecu light in the center of the box blinks..

good luck with it..

Figgy1682

I never had any problems with it before this. it didnt give me a warning light or nothing and it just died so it was kind of odd to me to. do you really think it could be the coil when theres spark? maybe just not enough? ill check the valves in the morning and see if there moving, also im going to check the ecu light and see if its flashing. thanks for the help, and if anyone else has any ideas please keep them coming.

CrxChicken

yea you can find a code to read the ecu light blinks .. heh
its like beeping on a computer
1990 was earlier then you could hook up a normal tester
so they put the codes in the blinking light thats in the center of the ECU.

ALSO your ecu should be under the passenger side carpet but it could be in another place depending on the build of your car. but should be there.

The coils in the 1.5 1.6's are strange when they fry sometimes its like a little lightning bold cuts through the side of the coil.. you open it up and it can still test partly good with a ohm meter .. you take it out you see the back bottom side has this goldish brown powder from the burn through..

Cant say that is the problem .. could be maybe...

When you go out tomorrow .. when you turn on your ignition

Look for this

Does your Tach guage go up to about 1k or just up a bit? if so thats good

Listen real close when you go from the key totally off to the key on.. WITH ALL YOUR OTHER ACCESORIES OFF... do you hear the fuel pump whir for about 5 seconds?

That is good means your fuel pump is probably good and your Main Relay is good.

then hmm its kinda impossible to test the output of the coil accurately at home but you can find the manual online and it will give you a couple tests you can run on the coil and the igniter that sends electric to the coil and is also inside the distributor..

If your valves dont move when the engine cranks.. you are totally screwed.. your timing belt broke.. if they move .. go have a beer and kiss the dog.. heh

dont lknow what else..

try to find the test for the Neutral relay switch that tells your car it can start .. im not sure the car would even crank though if that was bad..

good luck.

disaster

Did you check your timing (belt and ignition?) your belt couple have skipped a tooth. Have you done any work to your car recently?

Figgy1682

Ok now that im feeling better i started checking things on the car. the timing belt is in tact but im not sure how to check timing to see if it skip a few teeth, i could never ever really get tdc right on any honda i owned. i checked the ecu next and the light does one short blink when i put the ignition on, when im starting it it also does one short blink. I'm going to check the coil now but i figured i would post this first to see if i can get help with these 2 finds first

Figgy1682

Well i started checking spark again and all of a sudden im not getting spark, so i checked and tested the main fuse for ign and its good. There was no burn on the coil but im going to get it tested anyways and also the igniter. I was told that cr-x had a recall back in the early 90's for faulty icm/ igniter and also for the coil so off to autozone or somewhere to get them tested.

CrxChicken

yea i would suspect the coil

Most of the time the belt wont skip teeth .. it would be bad if that happened a lot you would start mashing valves or something worse. so if it ran then died its probably the coil

Like i said you can go through the test of the coil and ignitor an get false positives meaning it can test good but be bad.

Most people say that the replacement ignitors from most parts dealers suck
I bought one and it did not work right out of the box

If you end up replacing the coil and ignitor you will find you can ALMOST pay for a cheap rebuilt distributor depending on your model and the connector.

I would just go with a new coil
BE CAREFUL getting the screws out I had to use an impact driver to get the coil screws out because they are so tight. just a little tap starts them but a screwdriver will strip the crap out of the heads..

ummm also when you are pulling it out you have to pull the rotor and the plastic dust cover .. take note on how it installs when you pull it off.. it can be a drag to get back in right..

dont know what other tips to give..

good luck

CrxChicken

I actually have to get in there and see if my connections are causing problems.. my tach is acting up bad .. could be a bad wire or i fricken hope its not the ignitor or something else..

Its all the way up past 8k on the dash and when i get on the throttle real hard it starts running backwards..

Fricken better not be the ignitor... it runs well enough .. not rough so maybe its just a wire i hope.. and not a capacitor or something.

justinschmidt

I owned an EF a few years ago that did this to me, it ended up being the ignition module inside of the distributor.

I'm not sure if this was the exact picture, but it was very similar.

91GEDHATCH

Open your distributor and make sure that the rotor is still held on by the screw. It sometimes will unscrew itself.

Leesautoworks

Sounds like an alternator problem if you said the serpentine belt is fine. Check out http://www.drive-more-fix-less.com/startingproblem.html

rossthab022

My crx did the same thing it was such a pain in my ***. I bought so many new parts 700 dollars to be exact and turned out to be my main relay. I picked one up at a junkyard for 5 bucks. Fml

npe1jar

I'm having very similar issues (https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/no-start-no-spark-but-new-distributor-90-si-3038812/). Hope you get something figured out.

Figgy1682

Well here's the latest on my Rex. It still won't start. Got fuel, got spark, got timing right, still won't start but cranks hard. I really can't call it anymore. I bought a rebuilt dizzy and it still won't start so I'm just boggled now to wtf it could be. I read a few post above about a main relay? I thought the car wouldn't even turn over if the main relay was crap? Am I wrong? Well once a agin any advice is well worth it and if I can't figure it out I'm digging in the savings and getting a freaking swap! Thanks in advance.