so been stumped here for a few days...89 civic sedan b18b1....car will not start...starter turns over but sounds slightly weak...starter was just replaced bout 2 weeks ago...last day i drove it i came into some really hard rain...was gonna pull over but my intake sits safe and high so decided to keep going...all a sudden steering column started smoking so pulled over right away shut off the car...ripped the column off everything seemed fine so about 10 minutes later cranked it up and it ran fine..pulled off continued to drive car kept shutting off several times and struggled to start but did everytime then finally shut off and would not crank again after that at all...studied the column and cluster again when key was in pos 2 all the lights wouldnt stay on (which obviously would mean relay wouldnt turn on fuel pump) so everytime i turned it on it would die...got new ignition switch a few days later and sure enough that fixed that problem but now the car wont run....motor ran fine before the switch died so im out of ideas...thought maybe if it hydrolocked or dropped a valve i would either hear noise when spining it by hand or i would not be able to spin at all. by hand i can turn it counter-clockwise easily and hear no noise...took plugs out and looked in cylinders no water but compression test was low on every cylinder rings possibly? all advice is appreciated thanx

 

bump..really need some advice thanx

 

compression was low on every cylinder ya say huh. timing could be the culprit, have you checked it?

 

yeah ive checked it little worn but timings all on

 

hmmm. thats certainly not good.

if you didn't already, pour a little bit of oil into each cylinder and retest each. one time dry and then again when its wet. if the compression bumps up a significant amount with the oil then i'd be lead to believe your rings are toast. i've not seen someone suck up water and only partially hurt there engine (usually water getting sucked in ends with it hydrolocking and a rod through the block scenario) so i'm not sure if water that got in there could have muffed up the rings somehow

 

well the rings would make sense...car as always burned oil but ran great other than that but could they really just go from weak rings cause the car always compression tested strong to completly fried and leaving all cylinders so low the car wont run at all just from a small amount of water? like i said its wierd cause the day the switch went bad the motor was runnin just fine except for the shutting off due to that switch so idk

 

im gonna do a wet test here in about an hour or 2..be back on later to post results

 

i agree, it does sound odd that it would fail like that with only a small amount of water. i've practically chugged water through my old d16 and blew plumes of white out the exhaust because of it numerous times. even after it happening all those times i never had an issue.

 

ok wtf i swear this car has a mind of its own and i dont understand it lol...so i start wet test so far so good cyl 1 2 3 compression significantly raised...started thinking rings...so i go to do 4 then decide to dry test it first again and get a number all a sudden it dry tested perfect 155psi...keep in mind yesterday cyl 4 tested dry at barely a 100psi? used same compression guage and everything...so besides that it seemed as if the rings r shot..

 

The steering column started smoking? It has to be the ignition switch! Happened to me while i was driving! Its the electrical part of the ignition swith, runs u like $40 buck. I had the same problem in my 89 sedan! its and easy fix! take off the steering column covers and look behind the ignition, i believe two screws hold it in place and 1 plug!

 

o i know man i knew what it was and replaced itt already now just having other problems....so after i wet tested it i decided to make sure i had spark turns out i have absolutly none! only thing i can think is my roomate in college had his 98 lude broken into and they attempted to steal it and ****ed up the whole column but were unsuccesful but he found out when they messed with his ignition switch they sent a surge to the ecu and fried it completly he had to get a new one maybe what hppnd to my ecu when the switch fried????

 

anybody?

 

hmmm, well something electrically is certainly still causing you trouble. i would search around and find the things that need to be tested when you are experiencing a no spark situation. like was said maybe the ecu fried, or perhaps another fuse you haven't noticed blew. with the car on do you have +12v at the blk/yel wire on the 2 pin connector at the dizzy? if you do then perhaps the igniter fried. if you don't then the problem lies elsewhere.

 

thanx for the advice man...since ur the only one on here giving me any lol um no fuses were blown so checked that connector and sure enough i was getting 12v so picking up a new dizzy tomorrow gonna try that and see

 

sooo dizzy was bad...put my new one on today and car ran good but then got 4 miles down the road and guess my hood latch failed hood flew up and smahed my whole windshield and crinkled my hood junkyard next week for new hood and hinges and latch setup then hood pins..not taking chances anymore...also new windshield ugh