no start, no spark but new distributor 90 si
03-19-2012, 07:38 PM
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no start, no spark but new distributor 90 si
New to the forum, and have NO clue as to how to work on or diagnose my own vehicle. Posted this voluminous entry to another forum as well. Been dealing w issues for 3 months now. Here's the facts:
1. 90 si d16a6 (I've had the engine replaced, twice) 275k miles. changed cap, rotor, plugs, wires on 11/7/2011
2. bad valve #1. Mechanic #1 (Johnny, note these are not honda specialists by any stretch, but they've worked on some other stuff for me, including #1 above) determined this on 11/7 since pulling the plug makes NO difference in the state of the engine when running. (it was already running rough and would not idle.) Arm maybe broken or something like that. I disconnected the fuel injector so as not to dump fuel there, which helped mpg
3. trans had been acting up for a while. needed to skip a gear every once in a while to avoid grinding.
4. had a crazy issue where my battery was about to explode ( according to mechanic #1, Johnny). I had been smelling a funny smell and took it to him to see. opened the hood and it was smoking and "sizzling". let it cool and added water. after that I drove a bit and checked on it, seemed fine. That next day (1/16), I drove 2 hours to Chat, TN. Next day, drove 2 hours back. checked battery and the little cover over the water had blown off. replaced that and had not noticed any battery issues.
5. transmission went out while driving on 1/20. had mechanic #2 (dave, different shop) replace: transmission, clutch, clutch cable, motor mounts, oil pan, alternator, axle. job complete 1/24-ish, drove for a couple of days and then took back to Dave on 1/25 to adjust clutch cable.
6. on 1/30 11:30 pm, only about the 3rd time driving since getting work done (90% of the time, I ride bicycle) I drove for maybe 15 min and it died as if it was out of gas (gauge showed very low but not on empty). walked to station, put in about 1gallon, nothing. towed to house, checked fuel pump and some other fuses, nothing (I could hear the fuel pump coming on). towed to Johnny on 2/2.
7. Johnny states the following:
"computer not sending fire to distributor. signal going to the computer. and computer is sending to injector. manually turning distributor results in fuel coming from injector, but no fire
no fire coming from plug. working as far as the injector. initially distributor was bad- replaced it (more than once)."
fyi- computer# 37820-pm6-a01
8. johnny at first assumed the following:
"computer only other thing that it could be. controls the fire. sends fire to distributor seems to make injector actuate ("skeet" fuel). doing that but not sending signal to make plug fire"
but we've verified that one blink means ecm is ok, or at least we think so. also note that my ecm starts a friend's crx.
9. updated: "there is fire going to the distributor, but none coming out of the spark plugs" they have verified that there is fire with a test light at the distributor. the distributor is new."
10. called Dave to see if he had any suggestions and to ask if maybe something could have been disconnected during the transmission job(s). He visited Johnny and looked at the car. could not figure anything but did note that he had changed the distributor when doing the transmission (meaning that Johnny had replaced a new distributor?) and said that he would start by checking the "rectifier" also known as the "module" that sits on the firewall. Here's the device he was talking about (https://plus.google.com/photos/10577251 ... 2664634593) but it's not the rectifier and I've since found that it is the injector resistor box and has nothing to do with spark. autozone did not know what it was and did not carry it (from what we could tell, noting that I did not know the actual name of the device at the time, doesn't control spark anyway). this might determine that Dave is way off base wrt the vehicle as well.
11. At this point, I'm looking for any help I can get. Posted on another forum also but that was posted back when I thought the issue was the ecm. Johnny still has the car, but if anybody knows of a CRX specialist in atlanta, please advise. My gut tells me the problem is a simple one. Thanks for reading this novel
1. 90 si d16a6 (I've had the engine replaced, twice) 275k miles. changed cap, rotor, plugs, wires on 11/7/2011
2. bad valve #1. Mechanic #1 (Johnny, note these are not honda specialists by any stretch, but they've worked on some other stuff for me, including #1 above) determined this on 11/7 since pulling the plug makes NO difference in the state of the engine when running. (it was already running rough and would not idle.) Arm maybe broken or something like that. I disconnected the fuel injector so as not to dump fuel there, which helped mpg
3. trans had been acting up for a while. needed to skip a gear every once in a while to avoid grinding.
4. had a crazy issue where my battery was about to explode ( according to mechanic #1, Johnny). I had been smelling a funny smell and took it to him to see. opened the hood and it was smoking and "sizzling". let it cool and added water. after that I drove a bit and checked on it, seemed fine. That next day (1/16), I drove 2 hours to Chat, TN. Next day, drove 2 hours back. checked battery and the little cover over the water had blown off. replaced that and had not noticed any battery issues.
5. transmission went out while driving on 1/20. had mechanic #2 (dave, different shop) replace: transmission, clutch, clutch cable, motor mounts, oil pan, alternator, axle. job complete 1/24-ish, drove for a couple of days and then took back to Dave on 1/25 to adjust clutch cable.
6. on 1/30 11:30 pm, only about the 3rd time driving since getting work done (90% of the time, I ride bicycle) I drove for maybe 15 min and it died as if it was out of gas (gauge showed very low but not on empty). walked to station, put in about 1gallon, nothing. towed to house, checked fuel pump and some other fuses, nothing (I could hear the fuel pump coming on). towed to Johnny on 2/2.
7. Johnny states the following:
"computer not sending fire to distributor. signal going to the computer. and computer is sending to injector. manually turning distributor results in fuel coming from injector, but no fire
no fire coming from plug. working as far as the injector. initially distributor was bad- replaced it (more than once)."
fyi- computer# 37820-pm6-a01
8. johnny at first assumed the following:
"computer only other thing that it could be. controls the fire. sends fire to distributor seems to make injector actuate ("skeet" fuel). doing that but not sending signal to make plug fire"
but we've verified that one blink means ecm is ok, or at least we think so. also note that my ecm starts a friend's crx.
9. updated: "there is fire going to the distributor, but none coming out of the spark plugs" they have verified that there is fire with a test light at the distributor. the distributor is new."
10. called Dave to see if he had any suggestions and to ask if maybe something could have been disconnected during the transmission job(s). He visited Johnny and looked at the car. could not figure anything but did note that he had changed the distributor when doing the transmission (meaning that Johnny had replaced a new distributor?) and said that he would start by checking the "rectifier" also known as the "module" that sits on the firewall. Here's the device he was talking about (https://plus.google.com/photos/10577251 ... 2664634593) but it's not the rectifier and I've since found that it is the injector resistor box and has nothing to do with spark. autozone did not know what it was and did not carry it (from what we could tell, noting that I did not know the actual name of the device at the time, doesn't control spark anyway). this might determine that Dave is way off base wrt the vehicle as well.
11. At this point, I'm looking for any help I can get. Posted on another forum also but that was posted back when I thought the issue was the ecm. Johnny still has the car, but if anybody knows of a CRX specialist in atlanta, please advise. My gut tells me the problem is a simple one. Thanks for reading this novel
03-19-2012, 11:01 PM
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Re: no start, no spark but new distributor 90 si
Main relay? Common issue in the EF's and controls Spark and Fuel. Had mine die out when I had my EF while on the road.
Also another idea have you changed the spark plugs? Sounds dumb I know but today I had a D15B2 that was getting spark and fuel but one of the cylinder's wasn't firing. Changed the spark plug with the one in another cylinder and the other cylinder started acting up turned out the spark plug was bad. Just something easy to try
Also another idea have you changed the spark plugs? Sounds dumb I know but today I had a D15B2 that was getting spark and fuel but one of the cylinder's wasn't firing. Changed the spark plug with the one in another cylinder and the other cylinder started acting up turned out the spark plug was bad. Just something easy to try
03-21-2012, 07:33 AM
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Re: no start, no spark but new distributor 90 si
thanks!
getting fuel, so relay can't be it.
wrt plugs- they've verified that fire is not getting even to the end of the wire (they say) so can't be the plugs.
keep the suggestions coming!
getting fuel, so relay can't be it.
wrt plugs- they've verified that fire is not getting even to the end of the wire (they say) so can't be the plugs.
keep the suggestions coming!
u be good
03-21-2012, 12:34 PM
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Re: no start, no spark but new distributor 90 si
Yep what he said ^^ Grounds on thermostat and on the transmission. Make sure there clean and tight just has a problem with one of those the other day lol there sooo picky about grounds
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