car was my winter beater, im driving along normal then all of a sudden it just dies... pull of to the side of the road and turn the key over and the starter just spins but nothing is happening, doesnt even sound like it wants to start...

is the motor dead? siezed up perhaps?

 

Do a compression test, should be fine though. Probably ignitor went out. Test for spark on all cylinders and for fuel.

 

how?

 

when a motor siezes up is this what happens? just kinda stalls, then doesnt start back up? the starter spins over and makes a noise but nothing else

 

Well to see if the motor is seized, which a I doubt it is, take the car out of gear (hey some people don't remember this lol) and try rotating the crank by hand.

To test for spark, pull a plug boot, insert a screwdriver hold right next to a ground (like valve cover nut) and have someone crank the motor. Got spark, move to next wire etc. If you don't have spark do the helms test on the ignitor yada yada yada. Also replace your spark plugs.

As far a compression test, you can usually rent a tester from schucks/auto-zone etc. threads into spark plug hole, crank the motor for 5 seconds or so and see what the compression is (disclaimer compression tests are ideally done on motor that is at opertaing temperature, but since your's isn't operating we'll for go that).

 

i just went out and tried to spin the crank... at first it moved a tiny bit, maybe 2~3inches, and now i cant get it to move at all.... either way

 

sounds like ignitor in distributor to me....or maybe the fuel relay which r known ofr going bad......if u try to turn crank by hand it will stop when it starts a compression stroke take the plugs out if u r gonna fo this....but it isnt seized if the started can rotate the crank....if it seized it wouldnt turnover

 

if it was siezed it wouldnt move at all. the same thing happend to my car a few weeks ago. the general consesus was the coil/;ignitor went bad, but that wasnt the case cause i replaced both of them today and the motor still wont start. was it smokin or anything when it died? how is your oil level?. ummm...check your grounds, your fuses and relays and whatnot. sorry i cant be any more help than this, but i cant even get my own whip to work...good luck bro

 

ok i just changed ignitor... same thing. car doesnt actually fully turn over, its more like a "ZZZZ" sound.

i checked for spark and its all good.

this car burns a lot of oil, has since about 160k... so about 30k burning a lot of oil. I always kept it at about 2qts low bc it would dust so bad... it was fine, once the oil light came on id add a quart. so maybe she has seen the end of days and its time for junkyard?

 

ok heres the review...

driving along then all of a sudden out of nowhere car just dies... pull off side of road, crank it over, "zzzz", "zzzzz", thats it. not fully turning over.

i changed the igniter, gets good spark...

the cam turns so its not the timing belt...


Modified by dunkd at 5:17 AM 2/21/2004

 

bump bump - anymore ideas? internal problems maybe?

it turns over like there is no compression, couldve the timing belt possible skipped a couple teeth? or something of that sort


Modified by dunkd at 6:26 AM 2/21/2004

 

do a compression test. its probably gonna be a lil off because the car isnt at normal operating temp. you said its been burnin oil for a while, so im gonna assume the compression is gonna be a lil lower than average, but if you come across real low#'s or a big difference between cylinders, id say its just lost compression and died. i wanna say that anything lower than say 150 or so is a cause for concern, along with inconsistancy. (thats just a real rough estimate of what your comp. should be around)

 

check yur timing belt

 

do a check for the fuel pump or even the fuse for it. btw, your 1991 honda civic dx calls for 3.8 qts. of oil in the crankcase not accounting for the oil filter so close to 4 qts.