hello, first post - hoping for some ideas. thanks in advance!

car died after 40 miles on the highway, instantly suspected the fuel pump by the way it felt (sluggish for a second or two, then just a rough idle for a second or two, then died). i tried restarting it about 10 times, not cranking any longer than 4 seconds each time. no hum from fuel pump, so i had it towed home and replaced fuel pump and strainer. turned key to on, fuel pump hums but still won't start - just cranks. i verified timing belt was intact by viewing the rocker arms moving, and checked all relevant fuses (under hood and under dash). i checked fuel pressure between filter and fuel rail - 40 psi. pulled the plugs to find no spark on any of them, also noticed they were dry and no smell of fuel in the cylinders. the car had a previous fault (misfire on all cylinders) when this happened, so i cleared that and it hasn't thrown a CEL since. main relay clicks when key is turned on, CEL lights for 2 secs, relay clicks again and CEL goes out. removed distributor cap (contacts are in good shape on rotor & cap, NGK 8mm wires & plugs are fairly new) and pulled coil out, checked resistance and found primary winding out of spec. took ignition control module with me to Advance & Autozone but neither knew how to test a honda ICM, so i just bought the coil. put it back together, still no spark. went back and bought an ICM, still no spark. i get 12v at both terminals on coil with key on, as well as 12v at coil output and yellow/green to ICM. also get 12v on ECU pins 11 & 24 (connecter A). although (with injectors & IACV unplugged) i only get 6.5v on pin 20 - maybe this means something? grounds are good on ECU, as well as on thermostat housing. removed and resoldered main relay, just to be sure - no change. no real pulse at the injectors, but my meter does read .15v on the signal wires when cranking. left my meter in the sunlight and it screwed up the lcd display, so i haven't yet verified the ignition switch isn't the culprit. aside from that, any other steps i can take before replacing the ECU? car is a 1.6 vtec manual trans >200K miles

 

well, found my old meter and checked ignition switch - it's working properly. i guess it's off to the boneyard to get another ECM...

edit: also pulled timing belt cover to verify that it had not jumped time - all marks line up correctly.

 

swapped ECM, still no spark & no fuel. guess i'll try a different distributor to see if mine has a bad position sensor (new coil and new ICM already). aside from that, the only other possibility i can think of would be the crank sensor behind crank pulley. am i missing anything?

 

what about the main relay?

are all your ground clean and tight?

 

it's clicking as it should (CEL on for 2 secs then off), and running the fuel pump. i did remove & resolder it just to be sure, but i don't think the main relay is at fault.

yes, removed ground wires and cleaned up bare metal for solid ground. also verified grounds on ECM had continuity to body ground.




once it stops raining outside, i'll swap distributors. hopefully, that solves it...

 

Keep this site on file for future reference:

http://easyautodiagnostics.com/honda..._systems_1.php

 

Sounds like you need a rebuilt dizzy.

To bad you already bought the ICM and Coil. the cost of those is whata rebuilt dizzy runs.

You could have a bad position sensor in the dizzy.

Can you borrow a friends dizzy to see if that's the issue ?

 

For the fuel side of things, did you check to see if the fuel filter isnt clogged.

 

im voting bad pump

 

first thing i did was replace fuel pump, as it was not priming when key was turned. after i did that and it still wouldn't start, i checked fuel pressure between filter and fuel rail - 40 psi.

in between downpours yesterday, i replaced distributor with one from junkyard. still no start, but injectors are pulsing now. no time today, but i will start over diagnosing the no spark condition tomorrow or saturday. i've about had it with this car.

 

take ur ecu out and try it on a different car...thats what i just did and as i hoped it wasnt...IT WAS THE PROBLEM...

 

already swapped computers - no change...

 

have you done a compression test?

may seem like a dumb question but is your firing order correct also after you changed your dizzy?

are you getting power to the ignitor wen the car is turned to the on II position?

 

Crank the engine for 30 seconds to see whether a distributor CEL code (4, 8, 9, or 15) gets thrown.

My guess is that you'll get code 4, given that the ECU needs the CKP signal for the injector pulse and spark.

 

I pulled timing belt cover and made sure marks on cam pulley were aligned with crank pulley before I swapped distributors. when I did swap them, I made sure to install the replacement exactly as I pulled the original.

I will be starting over troubleshooting the no spark today and will check that out. thanks

 

I'm gonna double check today, but I had injector pulses after replacing distributor. if that corrected the fuel issue, I'm guessing one of the position sensors went bad in my original. maybe the junkyard distributor has a bad coil or ICM? gonna start from square one again and get this taken care of. will check for a CEL also - thanks

 

Dam Im runing ur same problem d16y8 I do get a low spark but replaced the dizzy and cables but still no start just cranks

 

 

sounds like an electrical problem. check ckp

 

sorry, got distracted by a side project (quadcopter).


switched back to my original ECM, along with junkyard distributor. i now have spark and fuel, but still won't start - not even close... i cranked it for a good while and it won't throw a CEL either. timing marks line up and i installed junkyard distributor identically to the position that i removed the original from. air filter is unrestricted.

i'm puzzled...

 

so, in checking spark again i notice that it seems erratic. take my original distributor cap and put it on junkyard distributor. car (very reluctantly) started. after it ran for 30 secs, everything seemed fine. took the dogs for a ride and everything is good. thanks for all of the suggestions!