Today a radiator hose broke on my car. The car started to heat up, I quickly pulled it into a gas station, let it cool down a bit and then put some more water in it. It made it the 20 or so miles back to my house without heating up again.

When I got home I pulled the hose off, got a new one and put it on. There was quite a bit of water/anti freeze that had sprayed all over from the leaky hose, so I let the car dry out a bit and then tried to start it up. No go.

The car turns over, and seems to have plenty of juice, it just won't start up. The car's battery is strong (just tested), alternator is good (just replaced), checked the plugs and wires (both replaced recently and seem good).

I pulled a couple spark plugs and couldn't get a spark, so then I was thinking the distributor. I checked all the connections on the distributor and they looked good (no liquid), but I went ahead and took the cap of and blew everything out with compressed air.

I'm wondering if the distributor just happened to go out, unrelated to the radiator hose problem/water. The car has 215,000 miles on it, so I guess it's possible that it was just a bad day for my Honda.

I'm going to let the car dry out over night and hopefully it will start up in the morning and get me to work, but I'm thinking it probably won't....so what are your suggestions for where I should go from here/what I should test next? I'm a pretty novice mechanic so if it's complex help me to understand.

REALLY appreciate your time!!
Ryan

 

Car didn't "dry out" over night, as it still won't start. If there are no suggestions I'm thinking I will try and replace the distributor.

 

I have a 1987 Accord, auto with carb that is doing same exact thing. It was also after a hose split and flooded the engine compartment. That was over a month ago and it still won't fire, just cranks. I get spark at distributor end of coil wire and also at spark plug end of wires. It doesn't appear to be getting fuel in the carb but I haven't had time to check closely. Sounds like from other posts that fuel pump relay, fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator and main fuel relay need to be checked or replaced.

 

Not too long ago, my 90 CRX didn't start for some reason. The battery was good, the problem had something to do with the electrical system and something wasn't right. The car is 14 years old so i wasn't shocked that some part went bad.

Like you said, it could be your bad day and the distributor or some other part simply got worn out. I would have it checked with a trusted mechanic and have him look it over.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rdiggidy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Today a radiator hose broke on my car. The car started to heat up, I quickly pulled it into a gas station, let it cool down a bit and then put some more water in it. It made it the 20 or so miles back to my house without heating up again.

When I got home I pulled the hose off, got a new one and put it on. There was quite a bit of water/anti freeze that had sprayed all over from the leaky hose, so I let the car dry out a bit and then tried to start it up. No go.

The car turns over, and seems to have plenty of juice, it just won't start up. The car's battery is strong (just tested), alternator is good (just replaced), checked the plugs and wires (both replaced recently and seem good).

I pulled a couple spark plugs and couldn't get a spark, so then I was thinking the distributor. I checked all the connections on the distributor and they looked good (no liquid), but I went ahead and took the cap of and blew everything out with compressed air.

I'm wondering if the distributor just happened to go out, unrelated to the radiator hose problem/water. The car has 215,000 miles on it, so I guess it's possible that it was just a bad day for my Honda.

I'm going to let the car dry out over night and hopefully it will start up in the morning and get me to work, but I'm thinking it probably won't....so what are your suggestions for where I should go from here/what I should test next? I'm a pretty novice mechanic so if it's complex help me to understand.

REALLY appreciate your time!!
Ryan
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What year and model is it...