Help me out fellas, my girlfriends EF Sedan just died tonight and it's sitting across from her friends house. The car was slowly having more and more trouble starting this past week and I was too dumb to get it fixed before it died. Anyways here's the scoop:

Beginning of the week, car would take a few cranks til it started up.
Then it got progressively worst, takes more and more tries to fire it up.
Now tonight, it finally stopped starting up. We tried jump starting it with cables, that failed. Failed to the point where it won't even crank.

Now whenever, I try to start it- All I hear is the fuel click. That's it.
I replaced the dizzy twice already, in the last 10k miles or so. But it doesn't sound like the dizzy this time. I haven't checked anything since it died at night with no lights. I'm guessing this time the starter has finally given out and will try replacing it tomorrow, but just trying to gather more ideas.

(Notes: 1991 Honda Civic LX - Automatic
115k miles. Maintenence done so far? No idea, besides the dizzy.)

Thanks in advance.

 

Stop starting it. You're fouling the spark plugs. Take them out to dry or replace them altogether. Could be maybe an ignition coil problem. Do a compression check. When was the last time you got your valves adjusted? Your problem sounded very similar to mine and it ended up being the valves were way out of spec and produced such low compression results that the car first started out like yours in the start and got progressively worse as you've described. Maybe try giving your starter a good whack also and see if it helps, sometimes the motor can get sticky.

That's all I got for now, but we also need more info. Any mods lately to the car? Any CELs?

 

its ur starter

 

im 100% its ur starter same thing happened to me took me a week to figure it out i finally fixed it yesterday its a starter problem jsut replace it simple... hope this helps yah

 

No mods to the car, no CELs ever. My friend, who is also my mechanic, did tell me the car needed a valve lash, but he didn't say it was mandatory any time soon. First things first, replacing the starter. Then I'll get the compression check done, mind as well replace the spark plugs while I'm at it.

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I'll update tomorrow.

 

just as a side thought, starter or not, if it hasn't ever been done you should probably get the timing belt replaced for piece of mind... especially if you don't know the previous maintenance on the vehicle.

but your woes sound similar to my starting problems i had on my van. cranked fine. then one day it started cranking slower and slower till i was left stranded 45 mins from home with a car that cranked like i had a dead battery, accept it wasn't dead.

 

HAve you also looked into your main Relay? mine doesnt let my car turn on sometimes. I would check that too. Wouldnt hurt. Good luck!

 

Gotcha. Let us know how it goes.

 

starter, battery, bad ground or connection, or dizzy.

 

sounds like its the starter most likely. could be the battery but im going 20 credits on the starter.

 

It was the starter, replaced in the middle of the street this morning. Works and runs fine now

I'd do major maintenence, but tight on money right now Knowing me, if I'm going to do the major stuff, I'm gonna do all the minor stuff too. Timing belt/ water pump = VC gasket, all the belts, new hoses, fuel filter, valve lash, spark plugs, alternator. Sounds a bit far fetched, but if the car is going to be down for 1-2 days mind as well do it all at once.

 

Glad you got it fixed. Sucks having a car down.

 

not far fetched at all. that's what i call smart thinking. i have learned the hard way how much it sucks having to jack your car up like 6 times in a week to keep fixing one thing after another.

 

The main relay won't prevent the car from turning over.