the other day, my civic felt like it was running on 3 cyl only ... so i tried to find out which one was the culprit by pulling the spark cables ... I found that when I pull cyl 3 cable it would not run any worse (meaning that this is the troubled cyl. ) - however after some 5 secs with the spark cable off the engine stalled and dit not turn on again.


its a rather low milage DPFI engine (50k miles) ... and I checked for the most obv. (fuse, main relais, ground, battery, etc) ... then it got dark and I had to go ...


so today I started rechecking everything again and when pulling the plugs, I was surprised I had no spark on any of them ...


reading around here on the forum, I seem to recall some posts saying that I can fry the coil or distributor (?) when pulling the plug wire ("did a compression test and now my car wont start") ...

can you confirm this? ...

what would be places to start discarting/identifying broken components? ... I dont want to start buying parts left and right ;-)

I do have "fair" car repair knowledge (but I am by no means a guru) ...

could you guys talk me through? ... I will set time aside for this and next weekend

again,
thx in advance
Al from Chile

 

Did you at leat change the plug wires?

 

Check the plug wires and make sure you aren't getting any spark at that end.
If you aren't then check if you have spark at the ignition coil. That is the likely culprit if you have no spark to any of your cylinders.
The ignition coil is inside the distributor housing and as such you have to take the distributor apart to get to it. It isn't very advanced but without the proper electrical testing tools like a multimeter you can't test the coil.
So, you are left with buying a new coil or a multimeter and either will set you back a few bucks.
If you want a 100% certain answer about how to do what you need to do to check the spark at the coil you need to get a Haynes manual or a Honda service manual which will cover diagnostics on your ignition system.

If you simply replace the coil 50-100 dollars, the distributor cap / rotor 35 dollars and the spark plug wires 50 dollars...at the same time you have covered most of your bases. But that is dumping money chasing a problem.

So, check a Haynes manual and they buy the multimeter and test your ignition coil.

 

Like I tell most guy's with these old cars, buy a rebuilt dizzy.

New wires is a good idea too, cap and rotor.

 

trying to eliminate on thing after the other:

how would I discart the problem is in the spark-wires? ... I do have a multimeter, but I also have some respect for the voltage that flows in those wires ;-) ... so yes, I have been zapped before ... hahaha ...

so how to check if the wires are ok ... is it continuity testing (red probe of the Multimeter in one end of the wires, black probe in the other end of the wire)??? (resistance should be high or low, I forgot which )

thx for talking me through
al