I am looking for help diagnosing my start problem. 2000 Civic, 220k miles, 60k miles on rebuilt engine. Recently replaced fuel pump and main relay. It was the relay which was bad causing a shut off while driving.

I was in a front end collision. I am repairing that now. Car ran fine after. I replaced the fenders, hood, bumper bar, bumper cover, grille, radiator, welded on a new radiator support, rad fan, rear transmission cooler pipe.

I tried to start it to back it out of the garage to sand for paint and I have a crank no start condition. I have spark at each of the wire ends, compression is low but about 90, fuel is being delivered to the fuel rail in the on position. There are no mice living in the air intake.

I had an new in box distributor and dropped it on but it made no difference.

Where should I look next? Could the Duralast Main Relay have failed already? Is it possible the relay would deliver fuel on the on position but not in the start position? The battery was disconnect while welding but something have fried? I was wiggling the transmission tube a bit to get it out and the new one in. Busted a wire? How can I tell if the injectors are firing?

Thanks.

 

Diagnose the relay, how did you confirm fuel being delivered to the injectors? Did you check the engine bay fusebox for blown fuses?

 

Check whether spark is weak (orange, yellow, or blue) or whether the engine starts with starting fluid.

 

Thanks guys,

Spark is orange through a screw driver.

Took the line off the rail whe it was priming.

I will drop some fluid in it.

 

It's better to test spark at the plugs, but spark may be weak. Ohm test the coil.

 

I put some starter fluid and didnt make a difference.

I dont think it has anything to do with anything in the distributor as the swap to a new one doesnt improve.

There is fuel being delivered with the key in the start position.

Whiteish yellow spark at the plugs.

A couple of times it almost started but didnt.

I am lost. Any clues?

 

Dropped in a new Duralast Main Relay.....after a bit of a struggle unflooding itself.....started right up.


So the bad relay had about 10k miles on it. Is there something I should look for which caused its early failure or I should I have known better than to use a Duralast relay? Which would also mean swapping out what is in the car now.

 

This^ does not fit with a main relay problem.

 

Yeah, thats why I am kinda stumped. Coincidence that it started with the relay change? I will put the bad one in and see what happens.

 

How did you run the compression test, details.

 

Main Relay Fix, Troubleshooting (Honda, Acura) and how to solder

 

Known good compression gauge used on my racecar.

All plugs out. Full throttle. Eight cranks. Read gauge.

 

Most likely

 

Put the bad relay back in....back to crank no start.

Strange. Must have an underlying problem not surfaced yet.

 

Generally, a bad main relay leads to no fuel (pump won't prime) and no spark, and also causes the CEL to remain on with the key in ON(II). These symptoms do not fit with the problem you described.

 

200 miles removed from the problem, no signs on the no start. Waiting for it to resurface.