Ok... here's what I've done... car was running FINE a month ago, before I left.

I live fairly close to the ocean first off... I went on vacation for 3 weeks and parked my 93 Civic DX with obdI GSR swap/ECU (chipped but running stock program), 1/4 tank of gas with a stabilizer in the tank.

I get home and the first night I go to take her out for a spin. I crank her over with the plug wires off to prime the oil pump.... hook the wires up and she fires up w/o issue. I warm up for a minute and drive less than 100 ft and she dies silently.

Now the battery was fine (Silver series 545cca battery).. I would turn her over and it would crank, but not start. I have checked the following according to Helms and even replaced the ICM just in case....

Checked ICM, REPLACED
Checked Ignition coil, OK
Checked power at Dizzy, OK
Checked Plug wire resistance (OEM wires), OK (6-9 kOhms)
Inspected engine bay grounds for corrossion, OK
Checked all fuses inside the cabin and under hood, OK none blown
Checked fuel pump, it's priming, OK
Battery, OK

Now I stuck the expected screwdriver into a couple plug wires to see if there was spark... NONE, but the battery was being run down and is now dead from repeated attempts to start her up.

I also noticed that a faint buzzing sound is sometimes eminating from the steering column location... I tore down the column cover (ok, ok...my car's still stripped and the column cover isn't there anyway...) and played with the heavily soldered wires on the ignition switch (where the key goes) and that part seemed to control the faint buzz (sounds like a buzz when you leave your keys in a rental, but not as loud)

NOW... I replaced the battery with a charged 600cca lead acid battery and when I try to crank it... NOTHING !!! The starter doesn't even spin, I just hear a *click* from the solenoid and it doesn't crank at all... WTF ?!?!

All the lights on the dash work, so does the headlights and so on... but now she won't even crank with a fresh battery !

I am kinda lost here guys... anyone have a suggestion as to where I should look next ?

 

bump for this guy

 

do you have an alarm? I had this same issue one time when the starter relay was stuck and the car acted like **** and shut off or wouldn't start..ended up being the alarm was hosing up everything..

 

please post any suggestions/help... I have very little honda support where I am and getting a mechanic to come to my house will prolly break the bank for me right now....

 

sorry dmxsoulja3, didn't see your post....

Yes, I have an alarm with ignition kill, but the alarm SEEMS to be functioning fine... it arms, disarms and doesn't give me any alert chirps that the car has been tampered with.

I'm not too well versed on alarms unfortunately... is it possible it could be cutting my ignition without warning ? Like a bad relay or sensor without screwing with the other functions of the alarm ?

 

mine would unlock and lock, and run down the battery, it was going crazy, I thought it was the battery, replaced it, came back out from work same stuff alarm armed itself, and eventually the starter relay got stuck and it wouldn't crank at all, it would just make wierd clicking sounds..I had it towed, they ripped out the alarm, installed a new one..never had a problem..

 

if the starter is turning over when you try and start it, then its not the alarm. The starter kill relay for the alarm just ties into the starter wire, it shouldn't cut and ignition wires. If you have no spark, check other things....distributor bad, timing belt broke...something along those lines.

 

^^ Wellllll... if you read the last portion of the post.... my starter has stopped responding... actually after the starter stopped cranking... I only head a wierd clicking noise when I turned the key, then the clicking stopped and I could only hear the starter solenoid....

So is this looking like the alarm ? (If so I've never taken one out )

 

honestly mine was just like that, starter stopped and it just clicked like crazy behind my dash and then finally it stopped doing anything lol

 

Looks like my work is cut out for me over the weekend....

Any other ideas/recommendations welcome....

 

From good to bad to good to bad AGAIN !!!

Ok... after much multimeter probing, wire inspection, connector inspection, much spraying of terminal cleaner and more... I found the problem... after swapping 3 ICM's, 2 Rotors, testing the coil, ign wires, etc.... turns out...even tho it passed the Helm's manual recommended tests....my ignition coil was bad... I borrowed a used one, swapped it in and VOILA ! The slug starts !! Promotions for everyone....

So I take the bish for a spin....

I notice that although the car starts, runs and idles smooth as teflon.... I put down the gas and drive a mile or so and BAM.... I hit 4k and my tach is doing an impression of Tigger on a sugar high. Everytime I hit 4k, partial or WOT, the tach would jump around and occassionally not even increase in rpm... at the same time, the engine is hesitating, missing/bucking to the beat of the craaazy tach. After about 25 mins of crusing around to recharge my battery... the jumping starts coming in earlier... and this morning it's jumping around as early as 3k rpm, so it's getting WORSE (To top it off, I think my batt has a dead cell as it doesn't get enough charge to restart the car, even after a 30+ min drive !

Sooo... WTF ?? Could this be my crank angle sensor kicking out ? Could a dead battery, but a healthy alternator cause these symptoms ? I am only getting a CEL code of 1 (Primary O2), which I had from before (O2 is shot). I have not had this problem on tthis engine before... but seen it on other builds, but the problem back then was we were using a non vtec ICM on a vtec engine. Currently I'm using a 8132 IHI Ignitor. I have a 93 DX, OBD1 GSR engine and ECU which is socketed but running a stock program.

Jeebus Vice... what NOW ? Anyone ?

 

Please give input ! I am at my wit's end and if my POS breaks down on the way home... I need to know which part to pull off and hit multiple times with a hammer.

 

Modified by CardDealer at 4:40 PM 11/16/2006

 

Not much more in there... a pickup, the crank position sensor, a shaft, some teeth.... I just don't see why I'd need a whole new dizzy....

 

i would swap the ignitor again. if the tack is jumping around 99% of the time its the ignitor.

 

What are the odds the coil could cause something like that ?

 

usually the coil either works or it doesnt however the ignitor can do all kinds of **** in between, try another known good ignitor.

 

I will see if I can borrow one before buying.

Do you know what the avg price of a stock ignitor up there Ramon ? They're taxing me $126 USD for one here....

 

not really sure ive never bought one, usually just pulled one out of whatever dist. i might have had laying around.sorry.

 

Modified by CardDealer at 4:40 PM 11/16/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by X2BOARD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> ? They're taxing me $126 USD for one here.... </TD></TR></TABLE>

You are lucky its that cheap, I've seen em go for more.

 

Kewl... I won't bitch like a girl if I need to buy one.

I got an external coil to install 2nite... I hope that's my only problem... I hope I don't also need an ICM... I'll keep the thread updated if anyone needs the info.