My 2002 honda civic ex coupe would not start, it would crank but never turn over. I decided to finally get around to check why my car had a check engine light on, maybe i could figure out why my care wasnt running. I had 4 codes pulled up
p0138-p0420-P0138-p1298. Now i know that the p1298 ELD, so my question is would any of these be the cause of my car not starting? or is this just more stuff i need to fix on top of the car that wont even start. please any help would be great!

 

Cranking with no firing makes me think you possibly have a stopped up catalytic convertor (P0420). Get under the car and LIGHTLY tap the cat. If you hear stuff rattling around the cat is bad. Replace the cat and both O2 sensors. Luckily you have the "cheaper" cat and O2 sensors. Cheaper means $750 for an OEM cat and $50-60 each for the sensors.

If the cat is bad replacing the cat and sensors may make the P0138 go away. If it doesn't then we'll have to diagnose some more.
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As for the ELD, it can make the car do weird things. It's probably the easiest fix. It's a $30 part and takes a couple of minutes.

The ELD is a Honda only part. Go to the dealer and specifically ask for part #38255-S5A-003. Otherwise they'll try to sell you the whole fusebox ($250).

Disconnect the negative battery cable , wait 3-5 minutes, unscrew the bolts holding down the 2 fuses and the ELD, remove and replace the ELD, bolt it all back down, reconnect the battery cable.

This is the ELD in the under-hood fusebox:

 

Thanks for this very useful advice. I'll check mine too.

 

Thank you for the help, but I have one more question, so if i was to take the cat of would my car start up fine? or would it only start with a new cat on it

 

Your O2 sensors plug in the cat so, there's no way to use the O2 sensor bypass when you take out the cat. It'll start, and if it stays running it won't run good.

If you don't have to worry about emissions drill out the cat or replace it with a straight pipe and do the O2 sensor bypass (google it) or O2 simulator (again, google).

 

The eld code would cause this for sure!! Cheers n good luck

 

'02 Civic LX with cranks but won't start issue. After reading this thread I plugged my Bluetooth ELM327 OBDII tester into the car and got "not connected to EDU" even after waiting for it to connect. Since the ground strap from thermostat housing is missing, could it be why I can't even OBDII test to see if I've got the 1298 code?