Hi All,

Total Civic Noobie, but not a Honda Noobie, I have owned a 1989 Accord Coupe since new and used to have a 2002 Honda Odyssey.

I just bought my first Civic, its a 1990 DX HB 5 spd. I dont know all the reference #'s you all use yet, but I will learn..

Anyways, I've had the car since mid September, All seems to be fine, except the smoke out of the tailpipe.

About a week ago, it quit starting, I can pop the clutch and start it, but not any other ways.. so the first thing I did was search like crazy on here. than I stared troubleshooting.

1.) Test Battery, tested bad.. OK its a 7 year old battery, I can live with that.

2.) Clutch Safety Switch, tested good, plug is in pedal, ( what a bear to get to though,) tested good electrically, and mechanically.

3.) hmm.. maybe the starter, but it just died.. that quick? jumped from battery to igntion wire, no go, pulled starter and had tested at shop, tests good, but sounds like hell speeds up and slows down while testing.. It is a junkyard piece ( as evidenced by the yellow marker part #) lets just replace it.

Ahhh success... for about 1/2 day, now its having issues again, if I turn the key to start 2 or 3 times, it will finally start, and sometimes it will start on first try, but its not consistent..

I'm thinking ignition switch, but the minister of finance ( wife) is having issues with the cash flow going into my "budget" car. I tried to justify it by the $100 dollars a week I am saving on fuel..

So any thoughts... did I get a bad starter, was the starter good all along, could that many things be wrong with the car.. What else could it be?

Thoughts, resolutions, experiences.. Serious help please

 

what brand of starter did you replace it with?

Ignition switches very commonly fail on these cars, but the good news is you can test them for free before buying one by following these instructions.. http://mycomputerninja.com/~jon/IgnitionSwitch.html

you may also check compression if you are getting smoke out the tailpipe.. if you blew a head gasket or the previous owner blew the gasket and sold it to you, then that may explain the starting issue.

 

I appreciate the answers, the starter is an AutoZone rebuild. I am not sure which brand it is. I like the pdf test page, will file it for future use.

I'm thinking the smoke is burning oil, not really white more bluish grey