So i was added some oil 2 my 1999 Civic EX (d16y8) with the engine running, then since i didnt want to go back inside the car to turn it off and then check the level, i pulled off 2 ignition wires (from the dist cap to the 2 cylinders on the passenger side of the engine) to kill the motor. The motor died, i checked the oil level, i went back inside the car and now it cranks over but wont start.

After i crank it for awhile theres a bad sulfur smell. i pulled off an ignition wire and stuck a spark plug in it, then touched it to the frame while someone cranked the engine and got no spark.

I thought if might be a fuse, but theyre all good. I thought it might be the coil, so i checked resistance between the + and - terminals on the coil and the secondary resistance between + and the winding. I got some weird numbers (maybe because of rust or a bad conenction i dont know).

it was around 11000ohms between the 2 terminals and .01ohms between the positive terminal and winding. I changed the coil since the numbers arent to spec, but nothing changed i still cant start the car.

next thing im going to check is the ignition control module.

and ideas or similair experiences?

 

Do you still lack spark?

Did you install the wires in the correct firing order on the distributor cap?

Is dash fuse 9 blown?

 

Yeah i didnt check the spark after i put in a new coil, but im sure theres still no spark.

the wires are 100% correct firing order, i never took the off the cap i just pulled them off the plugs.

nope i checked number 9 and it was good, i even replaced it with a spare 15amp fuse and still the same.

i should probably add that the car has been sitting in the garage for the last few months, with an occasional startup to keep the battery from dying.

 

You can't assume that there's no spark. It's easy to verify.

If you lack spark, have the igniter unit tested and check for voltage at the Blk/Yel wire attached to the coil.

 

I'm having a similar problem. I started my Del Sol without 2 spark plug wires hooked up and now my car won't start. I don't have spark. I'm going to start testing everything right now I will be back to post results.

 

hey mike!

i see you're still trying to figure the no-start issue. Test the icm like we talked about, and test the igniter for the triggering signal, just to eliminate it as a possible cause.

 

clogged cat

 

Curious. How do you figure a clogged cat?

 

an educated guess:

you made your ignition coil go bad when you pulled two wires and the voltage had nowhere to go

i know its common when all of the wires are pulled but the dizzy is still plugged in

 

Sounds like what happened to me...I checked everything and seems that everything was working so I just swapped out the dizzy with one that I know worked and bingo! the car starts.

I agree that you fried the coil, just swap for a good dizzy.

 

Check your timing, I wont be surprised if your timing is 180 degrees off.

 

no its not timing, even if the timing was off (which wouldnt have miraculously messed up instantly by pulling off spark plug wires) id still get spark.

i changed the dizzy, checked all the resistances to make sure the sensors inside the dizzy are good(even my old dizzy checked out), checked the coil resistance, everything is ok. But for some reason, every coil i check for primary resistance (across the positive and negative terminals) has a resistace of about 1.2 ohms, but the factory service manual says it should be between 0.6-0.8 ohms? I checked my old coil, the coil on the dizzy i got from the store, the coil on a second dizzy i exchanged the previous one for, and a new coil and theyre all about 1.2 ohms. weird, i dunno how 4 different coils can be off spec. the secondary resistance checks out on all of them (from the coil winding to the positive screw on the coil).

the main relay doesnt click when i turn the key, but i bench tested it and it works fine.
so im not getting power to the main relay, and i dont hear the fuel pump priming when i turn the key to the ON position (right before cranking). also the check engine light doesnt come on at all when i turn the key to the ON position, it doesnt flash or stay on for 2 seconds or anything, it just doesnt come on at all.

i just downloaded a honda factory manual and am gonna check if im getting power from the ecu 2 the main relay. if not, then apparently its the ecu.

any more ideas?

 

unplug the ecu and replug it i had the same problem did that and it worked

 

when you pulled the wires off the cap did you make note of which plug on the dizzy they went to? also it would have been way easier to just cut the key off :/

 

firing order is correct

 

first off im baffled as to why you did this to begin with. adding while running? checking while it JUST shut off? being that lazy you decided to pull a plug wire instead of just using 10 sec of your life to shut it off properly? life lesson is dont be cutting corners. especially when working on a car.

now seeing how careless you seemed from this, my guess is that when you pulled it off the cap, the metal tab inside the plug wire broke off and now it lost contact with the wire and thus getting no spark.

 

yeah

 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

well it was a bad coil (which i changed), but i forgot to put the pgm fi (main relay) #13 15A fuse back in its spot after i changed the coil.

before changing the coil, i checked al the fuses under the dash and they looked good (i shouldve tested them with a test light but whatever), specifically i was looking if fuse #9(15A) was good. It looked ok, but jsut to be safe i pulled the #13 15A fuse out from under the dash and wanted to swap spots with the #9 fuse. I put the 15A from #13 in the #9 spot, but forgot to put the 15A from #9 into the #13 spot.

then i changed the coil and technically solved the original issue, but since the #13 fuse wasnt in the car still had no spark.

then i followed a troubleshooting procedure from a honda service manual, saw that theres no fuse at all in the #13 spot...

...and then i saw a 15A laying on the floor...

lol