I'm at a loss. I have a 2003 Element with about 220,000 mi. It has been my daughter's daily driver. A couple weeks ago it sputtered and died while driving. Daughter reported it "surged" (maybe sputtered) when pressing the gas pedal. As she slowed to turn into a parking lot, it stalled and has not re-started. It turns over strong, just won't start combusting. Checked fuel pump, works like a champ. Checked for spark and no spark at the plug or coil. I measured 12v primary at the coil. At that point I presumed it to be PCM or wiring harness so I took it to a mechanic figuring they could diagnose it better than me. They replaced the crankshaft position sensor, still no spark. They thought probably the PCM but couldn't program one so I got a used PCM at a salvage yard and had it towed to local Honda dealer for reprogramming. That didn't fix it. The dealer is 6hrs in on diagnostics without any resolution. They verified the conditions I described above. They verified fuel injectors were working properly. They tested with a known good pcm and still no dice. The two things they have remaining to check is the wiring harness and a sensor I had never heard of. I apologize for the lack of details, but i didn't write it down. It included the word "arrestor" and is located internally near the cam shaft (maybe crankshaft). They also said maybe teeth had broken off of the sensor? They disconnected mystery sensor and it didn't throw any codes, but still no start. I haven't gotten a straight answer on whether or not they have verified the secondary ignition signal at the pcm connector. I'm guessing not since they are still looking at the wiring harness?

To me, wiring harness seems highly unlikely for all 4 cylinders to go from running to not running. There would need to be some other single point failure. Are there any other sensors feeding the PCM that would cause it to NOT send the signal to the coils? I'm under the impression that the immobilizer unit cuts fuel, so I'm ruling that out. I'm running out of money to let the dealer continue troubleshooting. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take this back on myself or scrap the car.

 

I didn't hear anything about the timing chain being checked. They do fail/skip; sometimes with the help of a failed chain tensioner.

 

Thanks for the input. We haven't gone down the timing route too far. The dealer had verified the fuel injectors were operating normally and I'm under the impression that a timing issue that would prevent the coils from firing should also affect the injectors.

 

You are assuming a timing issue without verifying the basics, that the coils have power and ground.

Common factors, lose any of these and there's no ignition:

1. There's a 15A underdash fuse #16 for the ignition coil relay, which is located inside the dash behind the glove box, (far right end relay).

2. The black/white leads to the ignition oils all go to the ignition coli relay should be always hot (12V) with the key in "run". Jump 12V to one, they al get 12V.

3. The black leads to the ignition oils all go to one ground connection, G102 at the left side of the engine. Ground one, they all have ground.

 

Follow-up....I got her running. After I got her back home, I was rechecking power at the coils and I wasn't getting a 12v differential between power and ground. I was getting around 3v. That had previously been checked and verified multiple times to be 12v. I removed the G102 terminal and cleaned it up and still nothing. After removing the terminal a few more times the washer connector came off in my hand. The copper had corroded to the point of physical failure. That was NOT the original problem. The dealer did find that the crank position sensor the mechanic had installed was spliced into the harness and two of the wires were swapped. They had fixed that and still no start so I suspect the position sensor was the original problem. At some time during all the trouble shooting, the G102 ground got disturbed and no longer functioned. After retesting and finding the bad ground and repairing, she started right up. I can honestly say I've never celebrated so loudly in my driveway before.