I wanted to be detailed with my description in case my issue with my SI is a common one so I can pinpoint the problem and get this car on the road and to an autocross event.

I just picked up a 1989 2 owner Honda Civic SI today with 170k on the chassis and 85k on a replacement motor. Paid $1,400 with new SI front seats thrown in and two sets of wheels stock SI wheels and tires and steel winter wheels and tires. The body is in decent shape some rust around the wheel wells but I think a good overall car for the price. 100% stock engine compartment. Here is the problem!!!!

The car drove perfectly at highway speed for about 70 miles after picking it up. Temperature outside 85 degrees low humidity. The temperature gauge was a little below mid way gas gauge read quarter of a tank. I was going up a slight incline and I noticed no power accelerating didn’t do anything car just hung at 3k rpm and started to fall. The car shut off easy, no hesitation or stumble before dying I put the clutch in and it restarted right away. I figured it may have been a fluke and continued to drive to my destination five minutes down the road in 2nd gear on a flat surface crawling in traffic when I put the clutch in and moved to neutral and the rpm’s went from 900 to 200 bounced then shut off easy no stumble. I restarted but it just turned the motor over wouldn’t start again. I turned the key and then it started right up again. Same scenario happened several more time but at closer intervals until it would no longer start and move for more than 50-75 feet. I would hit the gas to accelerate and I would hear and feel a slight grumbling noise when I gave the car gas. The acceleration was perfect at high rpms during the entire trip down before. The final time I tried to move the car it started and moved but quickly died but it did show a check engine light the first time since shutting off. I called a tow truck we tried to trouble shoot and hooked a jumper battery to keep cranking the car and testing different things. The starter is spinning the motor over every time. All vacuum lines around the manifold look intact and the few under hood fuses look good. I pulled the back seat to look at the fuel pump wiring and listen to see if it was humming when you move the key to the start position and it sounds like it humming also pulled the fuel cap and listened for the whirring of the pump and I thought I heard it. The car will just crank and crank and crank but nothing. We finally got it to start by giving it gas and turning the key and it fired right up and idled perfectly for 10 minutes as the tow truck was maneuvered. I dropped it off at my house after a 45 minute drive in the truck and once it was off the truck it fired up instantly just like when I test drove it 5 hours earlier and shut it down and restarted every few minutes and it worked fine but didnt drive for fear of getting stuck again. So what should I check? My thinking is that on a 1989 there isn’t much that is needed to keep the engine running.

I have another car this was going to be for my STS build. I am just annoyed because I just bought and I had to tow it home. I know it will be something stupid I am a Miata guy and I can spin my own wrenches for most basic to mid level duties hardest being a supercharger and clutch flywheel install. So please I need your help and I hope I can turn this car into something I can depend on to start every time.

Thanks,

Ryan

 

pull back the carpet under the glove box so you can see the ecu and see what code its throwing. turn the key to the run position and count how many times it blinks, the number of times it blinks is the code its throwing. that should help us try to pinpoint your problem

 

Sounds like a the EFI Main Relay....buy a new one from Honda

 

ya, Textbook main relay problems

 

Agreed.

Oh and you would know if the fuel pump was priming, its fairly loud if youve got your head right beside it. When i first got my car i didnt know what people were talking about, and i didnt think id hear it since i never heard it in any of my other cars, but its very distinctive and loud on a CRX. SO my guess is it wasnt priming, and you probably were just hearing what you wanted to hear, which happens often when youre upset and trying to troubleshoot stuff on the side of the road.

 

Thank you for the quick help. Your right I was pretty upset but I think the car will great in the long run. I will check the computer code and pickup a EFI main relay. I will update this and see if this fixes the problem. Thanks

 

it's funny when i was reading your post....the EXACT same thing happened to me when i first bought my car. drove it home, and it lost power and died. restarted, got another 5 miles, died. cranked & cranked, started here & there, just totally random.

my problem ended up being the distributor. more specifically the bearing inside was seizing up. i threw a lot of parts ($$) at the problem before i figured it out. the shaft wouldn't spin smoothly by hand, but it would still spin!

meh, at least it's easy to check. good luck

 

Thanks I will also check the distributor. The owner said he just changed it. Could this be the cause the screw coming loose in the distributor that I have been reading about or would that not allow the car to run at all?