Hatch randomly failed when I was at a grocery store. Scoured through these forums and found the symptoms were ignition switch related (Dash lights wouldn't come on, but would if key was jiggled). Jiggled the key and got it to start and run normally, then drove it home. Ordered a new ignition switch and replaced it yesterday, now the car wont start but will crank.

Is there anything that domino effects with an ignition switch failure?

I checked the under hood fuses and they're fine. Going to go through the gamut of things for fuel, air, electric but was wondering if there was a common thing that fails along with the ignition switch. Just dumbfounded since it started fine when I finally got it running before the ignition switch replacement. Thanks in advance!

 

Could be a bad switch. Aftermarket parts are not known for being fantastic.

Also main relay and bad solder joints comes to mind.

 

Took the relay out, nothing jumps out at me. Besides the brown discoloration. Also was ziptied to a post, so previous probably replaced it. Added some solder to the points that didn’t have much on them.

 

Probably back to a bum ignition switch.

 

After checking gas and air and at the end of spark I think I found it. Now to not bandaid it and find the root cause.

 

Didn’t resolve it….

 

Those are copper plugs, I thought the VX called for laser platinum plugs? Honda ignition systems burn up copper plugs pretty quickly.

EDIT, The VX does in fact use copper V power plugs, NGK ZFR4F-11

 

Makes sense why those looked so rough on the connector too. Thanks for that info!

So I was testing if electricity was going to the plug. That worked and air came out of the hole. No fuel, and none of the plugs smell like fuel.

Thinking I need to clean the injectors. I figure when I pull the rails I’ll know if fuel is getting there, also debating replacing the sensors. I read somewhere on here that one of them if it fails blocks the injectors from operating.

thoughts?

 

Cam/crank sensor failure in the distributor would cause the injectors to not fire.

VX doesn't have a tachometer does it?

 

VX does have a tach and also calls for NGK V-power copper plugs in the 4F temp range unlike the 5F of the D15B7 and the 6F of the D16Z6.

The red colored plug tells me it's not burning cleanly. And the black plug also is worrisome. That cylinder may have an issue. I would do a leak down test on it to see if it's got a problem.

One question is this a California VX with a 4 wire O2 sensor or is it the 48 State VX with the 5 wire O2 sensor? That makes a large difference from my understanding.

 

Well in that case, does the tach move when cranking?

Now where is my FSM....

There it is, NGK ZFR4F-11 or Denso KJ14CR-L11. Huh, yup V-power. Seems my memory isn't so great.

 

48 state VX, So I shouldn’t have joked with the wife about throwing a better engine in this if it ever failed…

 

Going to have to check

 

There isn't a better engine for this car to be honest. The VX is a rare bird and putting something other than a D15Z1 in devalues the car. You have more value keeping it the D15Z1 engine. Especially as gas goes through the roof in price.

 

How sure are you that you received an ignition switch for a '92-95 Civic instead of a '96-00 one ? Make sure that the brown plug that connects to the fuse box has the same wiring configuration as the original one. If not, you can de-pin the new one to match the original.

 

That was a joke, this is my second VX I’ve owned. I love this model.

 

you have me questioning it now. I bought it at RockAuto, I’m assuming I could digital mm the pins to verify? Absolutely had to depin the original connector for the 2 wires (Wht/Blu and Blu/Wht below).

 

Did the screwdriver to fuel injector hear test. No electric clicks so it has something to do with the injectors not getting power. Debating getting a MM to the plugs to validate further.


update: MM test showed 11.6 Ohms on injectors and 11.97 VDC off of the wired connector…

Next stop ECU testing

 

5 Wire

 

Tach does not move

 

Do you hear the fuel pump prime with key on?

 

Yup, and when I checked the fuel filter there was pressure from both sides. The fact the injectors didn’t engage makes me think the ECU isn’t telling it to operate.

saw in the service manual on injectors troubleshooting to move to ECU testing.

 

This seems like the distributor signal is not reaching the ECU or dash cluster. No signal from distributor, ECU won't signal the injectors. I think you should first test for continuity from distributor to the proper pins of the ECU. If there is continuity, then I would suspect a dead distributor.

My 92-95 shock tower plug table found here, may help you.

 

Would I still get the 12V to the injectors though? or does it pass through the ECU and thats why when I used the MM to a ground it gave me 12V?

Im honestly about to just buy a new distributor, and see if that resolves it. Found some VX ones on RockAuto ($120). I’ve replaced 3/4 the suspension on this car since most of it has been original. Might start doing the same under the hood.

 

If I am remembering correctly Honda does everything via grounding so yes, you would have 12V to the injectors and the ECU ground pulses the injectors to fire them.