I was driving my civic home from class yesterday and all of the sudden, it couldn't get out of it's own way. I started losing power and had to pull over to the shoulder to get out of traffic. Once there, it wouldn't start back up. Thank god for free towing from insurance companies. The CEL is on, but it has been on for a long time because it calls for the replacement of the intake air temp sensor, which I haven't been able to get out to this day. I'll run the codes again this afternoon to see if something new came up.

So far from a couple friends, with out them even looking at it, have said fuel, timing belt, and distributor. The car has had a faint gasoline smell for a week of two after it's parked which might make the "its flooded" part of this thread fit the bill...
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/car-wont-start-details-inside-2530555/
The dipstick does indeed smell of gasoline. But he has a b16 and it didn't keel over and die in traffic.

The timing belt is new as of last fall so I don't know about that, but of course, you never know.

As for distibutor, I really haven't dealt with ignition much yet in my mechanical adventures, not gonna lie. If it sounds like a possibility do someone who has dealt with this before, I'll pull it out for inspection.

So, I'm basically wondering where to start beyond this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

When you turn the key to ON(II), do you hear the fuel pump prime?

Do you have spark? Did the timing belt snap? Click here.

 

Fuel pump sounds like it's priming. Thanks for the link on checking the spark, I'll have to call a buddy over tonight or tomorrow to check that. I'll see if they can bring another jack over too so I can get the front tire off the ground and pull the cover off to check the timing belt.

 

99% sure its timing belt. mine snapped on the golden gate bridge. total loss of power, will turn over, but not start. best way to find out is open the valve cover, and watch to see if the TB slips when you turn it over.

 

An easier way is to peer into the oil fill hole while a buddy cranks the engine. The rocker arms should move if the belt is not broken. This won't tell you, however, whether the belt slipped.

 

good one, never thought of this.

 

This happenend to me once. I took the distributor cap off and the screw that held the rotor in place had backed out completely. I put it back in and the car started right up.

 

sounds to me that the ignitor in distributor went bad..basically if you have no spark thats gonna be your culprit,and its not hard at all to replace..

 

T Belt or ignition control module(igniter).

 

mine had the same symptoms, drove then had a total loss of power. car dropped in rpm till i turned it off as if i ran out of gas. culprit was my ignition coil.

i had no spark, and had jsut replaced my plugs, wires, cap and rotor so it was kinda easy to diagnose. bust out your multimeter.

 

Can't be the timing belt, he said he "started losing power." If the timing belt snapped the engine would stop almost immediately.

Sounds like an ignition problem to me.

 

how's your battery and alternator?