I've got a 99 Accord EX 4 Cyl ~190k miles that I've been working on longer than I'd care to admit...Car troubles started by occasional stalling out, got worse, finally a no start condition.

I have a HEI spark tester, and can tell you the cause: insufficient spark. The spark is there at the distributor, but it's too slow and weak. It even appears to have some trouble going through the wires, which are fairly new NGKs. (which I ohm tested, just to double check).

I have replaced the distributor, twice. Once with a chinese one off ebay, and when that didn't work with a known good replacement from a scrap yard.

Spark plugs have been replaced.

At advice of Honda mechanic, replaced ECU with known good ECU from scrap yard. (Honda then reprogrammed ignition key.)

On advice from another mechanic, replaced Crankshaft Sensor.

Replaced main relay when I accidentally broke the last one.

Visually inspected every ground I could find.

Car cranks fine. As of right now, the car will catch with starting fluid. But once the starting fluid is burned, it dies again. I have done this a dozen times now. I think the spark is just sufficient to burn the starting fluid, but not the fuel.

I'm at a loss for ideas, any help out there?

EDIT: Just read through the post by IEETGLUU. Seems a very similar problem...I've hit the grounds with some mildly conductive lube, but maybe tomorrow I'll get some better dielectric stuff to put on there.

Also, don't know that this is related...but, while I've been working on this car it developed a short. A fuse kept blowing. Fuse went to the radio console area, so I pulled the radio, and that solved the issue with the blowing fuse. I've just put that problem off to the side while I fixate on this no-start issue, but...thought I'd mention it.

 

Because yours starts and runs when injected with starting fluid, most people including me, would think that you may have fuel problem. What have you done so far to assure that fuel pump is not the problem? Do you hear your pump priming when ignition is turned on (before cranking) ? Did you check the fuel pressure?

 

Hey celicool,

Fuel pump primes, and I've unhooked my gas line at the banjo bolt to ensure that fuel is being pumped. It is, comes out in a gush. Some time ago, when I was again at a loss for what to do, I went ahead and replaced the fuel pressure regulator. No effect.

Let me go into more detail of what happens when I do a spark test...with the tester grounded and touching the distributor, I'll get an initial few sparks, but then the spark becomes unreliable. Instead of a fast tick-tick-tick-tick, I'll only get a tick between long pauses. Connecting the spark tester to a the end of one of the spark wires, I barely get a tick at all...it's there, but very quiet and the arcing is hard to see.

 

I am at lost here too.
Did you test for the spark starting from your sparkplugs and work your way back to the distributor?

 

You can see how I get some spark, but it's struggling, not consistent.

I do think it's a bit of a better spark today than yesterday, maybe spraying the ground contacts with some cleaner helped. You can also see the engine try and catch a few times in the video. I tried some starter fluid after taking this, but didn't get any results from it.

 

Looks pretty good? Hmm. Spark plug wires are about 2 years old, haven't seen a lot of use...NGKs, ohm test came out fine...

 

The spark at the coil seem fine from the video clip, but your spark at the sparkplug is not. So that puts your distributor cap, rotor, and sparkplug wires in question. I usually change them out at the same time when I do my maintenance.
I would test the plug again using the actual plug. Use a jumper cable to ground the plug to the chassis. Also, test it again at a different cylinder so see if you have the same result. If the result is the same as the test plug (bad spark), I would try a new distributor cap and rotor, and perhaps, new set of wires.


Also, your car is probably flooded with so many cranks so would try to crank it with the gas pedal down to the floor and keep it there until the engine starts.

 

I hear what you're saying about it looking like a suspect rotor/dist cap...but those are new, too...got a complete new distributor.

So far, every cylinder has looked similar...there's always an initial few sparks, 1, 2 or 3 sparks, before the spark starts to come in irregularly. It's like something happens shortly after the initial crank...I'm guessing there's a capacitor in line here, so maybe that's it? When the capacitor has enough charge, the spark plug fires, but when its drained, there's not enough juice to fire the plug?

 

If you consistently get good spark at the coil (by testing it long enough to conclude that) then the rest is rather straight forward to me. We expect new parts to work, but some new parts do fail right out of the box.


Have you watch some youtube video about crank no start? they usually point you to the right direction


I am not aware of any capacitor after the coil. Inside the cap there are igniter and coil so the coil is what may acts as capacitor--i am not sure on that part though.

 

That's the thing, the answer seems so close yet so far away...counting the original I have tried 4 different distro's on this car, with no noticeable change. Out of sheer hope, I just went ahead and changed out the cap on this new distro with the old cap off my original one, and no change.

I think I may have actually watched all of them...

Yeah, I think you're right about that. I looked up the battery to starter circuit, doesn't appear to be one.

The only thing I can think of at this point is the wires. Maybe I'll just change 'em out.

EDIT: But damn if it doesn't bug me to do that. Just inspected the longest wire on the car (which is the one I was using in the video), still looks practically brand new, ~30" long, 6480 ohms resistance. Just can't see how there's any problem there.

 

Did another test at the coil, I'll upload the video in a min, and it doesn't seem quite right to me after comparing it to some videos of tests online. The spark comes out pretty fast, but there are definite gaps. When I watch a video of someone else's spark, the spark from the coil seems almost constant. And the spark is very thin, not thick.

Testing at the distributor cap, either cap, yields very little spark. So, it's not the wires. The spark isn't getting through the cap.

But I don't think it's the cap, or the coil, or the igniter. I went ahead and switched out the distro again, to the one from the scrapyard that fired up a car right before they pulled it and gave it to me, and nothing's improved.

So, what's the potential causes of weak spark?

I've checked for ground everywhere I can think of. I've used a multimeter and poked around everywhere to see if I can find a drop in voltage. Everything looks good. Nothing more the 0.03 volts difference.

Seems like there should be a way of testing voltage at the connector that connects to the distro.

 

Actually, I spoke too soon...I am getting more consistent spark out of the changed-out distro. Much more consistent.

I've been hearing a strange sound for awhile, just figured it out...air is blowing BACK through the air intake....sprayed some starter fluid in and it spit a fireball at me! Ok, I'm going to think about this, but, while I do, feel free to chime in...

 

Just talking to myself here , but...seems like an intake valve would have to be open on an exhaust cycle. Either (a) the valve is stuck or (b) the timing is off. Now, just last week I changed out the crankshaft position sensor, which is right by the timing belt, and required removing the harmonic balancer and balancing belt. I didn't touch the timing belt, however. Still, I need to think about whether I could've messed something up....otherwise it's off with the valve cover to check the valves.

 

Sorry, I don't know all the intricate things inside the cylinders beyond the basic. The Pros usually say that there are 3 things your vehicles need to run: Fuel, Spark, and compression (engine integrity). But, you still seem to have problem with spark which I don't quite understand at this point.

 

Any updates on your no-start condition?

 

Change the coil. I know you think the one you have works fine, but I had a similar issue with my honda and my old coil seemed to work, but would make my car run rough after it was on for about 20 minutes. I ended up thinking it was my ignitor and then I thought it was the distributor, then I finally figured out my coil was bad. From what you are saying here, I two would say you have a fuel issue, but if you are sure your fuel filter isnt clogged or anything like that the only thing in this picture that hasnt been changed out is the coil. I was amazed when I found out my coil was bad, because they normally dont go bad but it happened to me.

 

Are you sure you're in time and didn't slip a tooth or 2 or more on the timing belt? Or distributor way off?

 

Well, he did not touch the timing belt.


Your ignition timing may be off. Play with your distributor and set it to different position until it starts. Usually you do this with your engine running, but you are in the catch 22 so keep trying different position.