I have a 94 Honda Civic DX with 230,000 miles that suddenly one morning turned over but refused to start. Spark, injector pulse, and fuel pressure all check out. Finally did a compression test, but the results are so bad I don't see how the car could have even ran before the starting problem appeared. According to my Hayes manual my Civic is supposed to have a minimum pressure of 135 PSI per cylinder. What I got was the following:

Cylinder 1 = 95 PSI
Cylinder 2 = 0 PSI
Cylinder 3 = 130 PSI
Cylinder 4 = 0 PSI

I'm starting to suspect my pressure gauge too, because when I tested cylinder 1 again it measured 0 PSI! I don't see how that possible in the same test.

So granted the car is in a crank/nostart state at the moment, but it ran just great the before the nostart problem. I would not think cylinders or heads would go bad that quickly. Could this be caused by a slipped timing belt? Is it more likely my pressure gauge is bad? What is a good next step?

 

I had recommended a compression test on your original thread and given the results you got I would say you need a new gauge/kit and you need to redo the test.

After performing the test with a quality/new gauge, drop two "cap full" of oil into each and crank the engine by hand a few revolutions. Then do a "wet" compression test. If the numbers are higher the second time around, you probably have leakage past the piston rings.

If the numbers are the same, next step is a cylinder leakage test to see where the compression is being lost.

Good luck.

 

Sounds like your timing belt has jumped teeth and/or bent valves. Blown head gasket is a possibilty too if the zero compression cylinders are next to each other. Very, very unlikely that most of the cylinders compression rings would be faulty at the same time. Refer to service manual to reset mechanical timing and tension timing belt. Afterwards do another dry and wet compression test as suggested by joey1320. If the dry and wet compression is again identical (or very near) then compression loss is related to valves and/or head gasket. A leak-down test will provide a definitive answer but, either way the head will need to be removed and head gasket replaced if compression is still low after correct timing is confirmed.

 

Yes this can be a skipped timing belt. Check the timing marks. Then while you have the valve cover off, check that you can turn the engine so all the valves on each cylinder are closed and the rocker arms are a little slack. If you find a rocker arm that is really slack, that valve is likely damaged.