Buddy of mine has a 96 civic ex (100% stock auto). It started misfiring (not knocking), and he got a CEL for #2 cyclinder misfire. He tried to make it back to the house and it died. It would start back up but run real rough, so he towed it back.

The next day it wouldnt even fire over, he got a new Dizzy and replaced it and it still wouldnt fire over. It has spark, gas and compression. Timing is correct, and the dizzy is not 180 out. He cleared the CEL and has none right now. if he disconnects the CKP sensor he does get a CEL for the CKP.

Any ideas? Bad ECU? If the crank position sensor is bad could it cause the car to not start?

 

Compression test the cylinders.

 

Ok, not really much info to go off. How many miles on the motor? Any recent work done to it? Are you absolutely positive all 4 cylinders are getting fuel and spark with good compression? Usually when you have all 3 the car will at least start. Have you checked for a possible blown head gasket? How is the fuel pressure?

 

I wouldn't have driven with the car misfiring. Do the compression test as advised and pray.

 

The car has 180K, but it's a Honda it should last 500K No recent work other than the normal stuff. I told him to check the compression, he said it was good, but I dont have the numbers. The car is at his house which is about 60miles away....

Yeah I probably wouldnt of drove it either... well at least not that far.

Fuel pressure was okay, he said it was at 45psi. but I think the norm is 55 right? I cant remember I havent messed with Hondas in awhile.

blown headgasket suggestion... I'll ask him to recheck the compression and tell me the numbers on all four, make sure its even.

but anyone know if it should still start if the crank posistion sensor is bad?

 

You are on the wrong track here^. Focus on compression, plug wires, and plugs. Also check whether all fuel injectors are spraying.

 

plug wires are newish (a year almost two). He checked the plugs, they are not new but dont look bad. He is very mechanically inclined so I didnt question him on the compression too much.

I told him about the old handymans trick using a flat head long screw driver and listening for the injector clicks, he said all was clicking and he can smell fuel pretty strong.

troubleshooting will be slow, the car is at his parents place and he wont be able to mess with it until Thrusday.

 

Hearing the clicking doesn't mean it's spraying. Make sure the compression test is done as described here.

 

He had some friends working on it today, they replaced the crank position sensor and it started up and runs.. but it didnt sound healthy so they ran compression test, they got about 145 on 2-4 cylinders and around 90 on the number one.

 

That's bad news.

 

I told him to turbo just the number 1 cylinder to get the extra psi in it, and hope it is enough boost to even it out some.

 

Why would he have been on the wrong track with this? He said it had compression, spark and fuel. If the Ckp is bad wouldn't the motor not start because it cannot tell when cylinder one is at tdc?

 

He had replaced the distributor and had no CKP code. He mentioned having compression, yet there was a cylinder misfire code. In a more recent post, he also states that a cylinder has low compression. He also later mentions replacing the CKP sensor and the engine firing up, but I'm not sure this was due to replacing sensor or coincidence. In my opinion, the bad cylinder is and was the root cause of the problem.

 

Couldn't the misfire be from the CKP going out though?

 

It seems only remotely possible given that the same problem persisted after replacing the distributor and there was never a CKP code. But there was always a cylinder misfire code and now clear evidence of a bad cylinder. Again, in my opinion, the evidence is heavily weighted toward a bad cylinder explaining everything at this point.

 

The misfire code and the bad cylinder don't add up though, misfire was in cylinder 2 and he has low compression in cylinder one.