So the other day it rained really hard and my 1996 honda civic ex would not start, we tried to get it started for a while with starter fluid it sounded like it wanted to a little but it never did, then the next day I came out and it started right up, again today it was very cold and windy and it started after a couple of cranks and made a loud like "brrrd" noise from the engine right after the engine started and then it ran fine. I read it might be the distributor cap so I took that off but it looks brand new off the shelf there is no oil or corrosion. The person I bought the car from said they replaced the distributor because it failed previously, there are no check engine codes and it doesn't miss fire. Are there any ideas as to why this is happening? It seems to only have trouble starting after a really hard rain.

 

Check the main relay for cracks on the soldered joint. Cracks can be very very small, hard to spot. Re-solder all joints if unsure.
check the ground cable from the tranny to chassis. Make sure it is NOT green or oxidated.

 

Only thing I can think of is water getting inside the distributor, check if the seal is still present on the cap! check the plug wires if any are loose on the distributor cap letting water in..

 

Old spark plug wires can also cause this problem.

Start with a full ignition system tune up.