Wuddup folks! My roomie has a 90 2.2L Accord with a coupla'hundred thousand miles and it's not starting! It's a bit more of an anomaly because she drove it home just fine, hasn't had any other issues, but parked it in the drive and it wouldn't start next time around. Only thing she could think of when I asked about anything out of the ordinary happening is that she hit a big pothole somewhere the day before.

I went through a bit of the basics:
- There is spark going to the plugs
- There is fuel coming out of the line that is attached to the fuel rail (I just pulled it off and had her crank it.)
- The air filter looks decent
- No fuses blown under the hood
- Timing belt is still intact

I tried searching but I didn't get much. I'll keep trying in the meantime. Just asking to see if there is some common quirky thing it could be.

Thanks!

 

Assuming Honda Accord changed over to multi-port fuel injectors in the early 90's, did you feel the injectors to see if they were firing?
F- fuel
A- air flow, sometimes this could include EGR or purge valve
S- spark to plugs
T- timing, did the belt jump or broken teeth
E- exhaust, is the exhaust clogged?, cat burnt?
C- compression

As someone always say, check all of the fuses
This can be done fairly quickly with a test light and having the key on

 

I don't have a lot of spare time, so we had it towed to a mechanic. His diag was a stuck open valve and he recommended replacing the engine. I was under the impression that that would only cause stumbling? We brought it back and I tested a few things. My previous test for spark only led me to get shocked, haha! So I went ahead and checked again. It SEEMS weak, like it can barely arc to ground. Tested a few things and I'm going to try to replace the ICU to see if that will fix it...the parts are returnable if it doesn't.

It sounds fine when it's cranking, but maybe I should still run a compression test...

 

Did the mechanic run a compression test to verify his diagnosis?

Good place to start, after verifying compression, would be testing the battery, coil and ignitor.

 

Ran the compression check and they all tested around 135 and held just fine. I think I'll call that other mechanic to see what his procedure was.

Just replaced ICU and it still doesn't start. I am seeing better spark at the plugs though. I should also mention we tried dribbling some gas into the throttle body as well and had no results.

Could the computer have anything to do with this? Is there a way I can test it?

 

What color is the spark?
It should be whitish>blue.
If it is orange then there is lack of sufficient juice at the spark plug, under compression it probably cannot ignite the A/F mix. You are leaving the spark plug in the boot and grounding the plug against the block, looking at the actual spark plug gap for spark coloration, yes?
135psi is on the minimum side of compression, is this with the throttle body at WOT? No more than 28psi difference between the highest and lowest.

 

I'm having the same problem, got spark, fuel but after running fine and being parked for a day it just cranks, timing belts good, distributors been replaced as well as the ICM, I'm not sure what else to do and its been trying my patience for months