Hello fellow ef drivers. Ive been having an issue with my ef. Crank no start, dash light wont come on, battery and alternator work fine, i think its a blown pgmfi relay, however, i cant find it. Its normally supposed to be under the cigarette ashtray left of the steering wheel but its not there ! I drive a 1990 civic hatchback no ac no power steering no passenger mirror, so its probably a cx/base model. So im reaching out to the honda community for help !! What do i do ? Where do i start ? Thanks

 

It has to be there somewhere, unless the entire harness was modified, which seems unlikely. My last hatchback had it ty-rapped up to the steering column. When you turn the key to ACC, you should hear an immediate click from that relay, then another click about 2 seconds later. That second click is the one that isn't there when the relay won't let you start the car.

 

Remove the hood latch assembly and it's straight up towards the sky form there. It's literally above the hood latch tucked up in the dash.

 

This sounds a lot like the problem I had with my civic. I my case it was a deteriorated rubber button on the clutch interlock switch on the clutch pedal. Tell tale sign is crumbled pieces of rubber on the floor in front of the driver. Quick fix is to tape a penny over the hole where the rubber button was,

 

Pgmfi relay is above the hood latch as previously stated.. Held in by a metal bracket with one 10mm bolt. Once you get it out pop off the upper plastic cover and take a look at the solder joints on the the bottom of the circuit board. All you need is a hairline crack on one to give you issues.. If you have a soldering iron and some time, just reheat all the joints so they melt and re-solidify. This solved my interrmittent no start problem and saves you from having to buy a new relay. Hit up google theres tons of how-to's out there.

 

Plenty of you tubes on this too. I've had these relays go bad with no hairline cracks. Never tried to resolver them but a new one always solved the trick..... Unless it's the distributor. For sure you'll be replacing the cap, rotor button, plugs and wires any time you have a no crank and you know the car is getting fuel (tap on the relay with a wrench while trying to start the car, if it doesn't start up start at the rotor button. Next step is go find a distributor that will work and put that on. Don't forget to add all the new parts from the old dizzy.

 

Quick way to find out if it is the relay, is spray a shot of brake clean, carb cleaner, ether, etc.. into the intake and see if the car will run momentarily. If it does, then you know your getting spark and its a fuel issue. If it doesn't then you know your not getting spark and to do some investigating as to why.

 

This is a great and simple way to get results!! I forgot all bout the 2 cans of fluid I sprayed into my intake before I knew what a distributor did!!!

Is there a reason you didn't recommend "Starting fluid?" I think that's what I used.

No a days I don't have the time to spend spraying **** into my engine but I have money instead so I just replace everything new until it works. Hard to way out if say taking the dizzy apart and replacing a part is effective, only to have a part right next to it go bad two days later. I'd rather just replace the whole thing and be done.

 

Starting fluid/ether same difference.. any flammable aerosol will work. You can throw parts at a problem all day but your going to waste money+time. Its better to find the root cause and isolate the problem so that you don't end up ruining a brand new part you just spent money on and you're still stuck with the issue.

 

Use a volt meter on your battery

 

do you have fuel? have you gone through the stickies and check list?