I have a 94 civic ex d16z6

While the car was on I pulled the spark plug wire (farthest on the right) and it died. It now cranks but won't start. The plugs and wires were relatively new. Aside from getting new spark plugs I am lost...

 

Do you still have spark? 94

 

Your coil may have crapped out. They do that sometimes when you dont disable the ignition when doing a compression test. I've never seen one do it from pulling one wire from a running engine, but see it as a possibility.

 

Check your distributor. Verify that parts are still good in distributor.. rotor, cap. Check if your igniter is still good and that you are getting spark from your coil. Most likely your coil has gone out and will need to be replaced.

 

Thanks for the replies. I am a noob, but I follow instructions well.

checking for spark... do I just put the plug on the end of the boot and touch it to metal??

 

First, I would make sure your fuel pump turns on. Verify this by having some one turn the car on and listen underneath the driver side of the car (more towards the rear) for a high pitched noise that will come on for 2 seconds..

2nd, you want to check for spark. You can do this many ways. Take a screw driver and insert it into a spark plug wire and slightly touch the screw driver with a ground such as your valve cover bolts or nuts as some one else is cranking the car. If your not getting spark, take your cap off your distributor.

3rd, while some one cranks the car make sure that the rotor spins.. that way you know that the timing belt hasn't broken on you. Also, while the cap is off check for spark at coil.. and make sure everything is intact also. Take a multimeter and connect negative lead to ground and positive lead to the coil while some cranks it.. You should see spark!

more than likely its your coil inside your distributor.. they go bad. also other things to check is if no spark: the igniter, and make sure spark plugs arent full of oil.

 

The quick and easy way, [easy spelled d-u-m-b] unplug a spark plug lead and hang on to the end of it with one hand and hang on to any metal on car with the other hand as someone cranks the engine.

Remove a spark plug, plug it into the spark plug lead, ground the plug to the engine, have someone crank the engine while you look at the spark plug.

Go to local auto parts store and get a spark tester, from about $2.50 up. 94

 

1)yea the fuel pump comes on normally.
2) will get to this after I replace the distributor rotor (lol I snapped it off and one of the cap bolts)
3) so, take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor spins while cranking?

I snapped a couple of pix. Going to replace the rotor in a bit, should I get a cap too?

 

yes i recommend new rotor and cap. also sometimes when taking off that screw that holds the rotor in place usually they are hard to get off with out stripping the screw. Impact screw driver works. Worse case is drill it out and just get a new screw but it might come off easy with just a screw driver. Have some one crank it over and see if your rotor spins to make sure that your timing belt didn't snap. Next, while some one cranks the car you want to take a multimeter and see if you see spark from coil. Take a multimeter and ground the black (neg) to the frame or any metal and touch the red (pos) to the coil that spring on top of the distributor while some one cranks it over. You should see spark.

 

Your kidding, right?

First, you would never crank an interference engine if you suspect the timing belt is broken, or even if the belt had skipped a tooth, if you are lucky enough not to have damaged the engine when the belt snapped, [very rare] cranking the engine would result in damage.

Assuming you know there is no problem with the timing belt, then yes, it is OK to crank the engine to see if distributor, [rotor] turns, and to check for spark, although i know of no one that uses a multimeter to test for spark. 94

 

Ok so the car is won't start....

So far I have replaced the distributor cap and rotor and put new spark plugs.

I am not getting spark from the spark wire. There was some oil on the plugs as I took them out

no fuses look burnt

Fuel pump comes on normally and the distributor rotor is spinning (timing didn't snap) My neighbor just came over and used his test light and said I am getting juice up until the coil

Should I look into replacing the coil? can i test it somehow

 

Both the coil and the ICM can be tested. 94

 

how do I test it? all I have is a test light my neighbor let me use

it sure would help to know if its dead or not before I go get a new one

 

You will need a multimeter. 94

 

Well I just replaced the coil with a BWD ignition coil and it fired right up!

I thought maybe the ignition control unit was bad, but it seems running good now. I got the right NGK spark plugs, but the cap, rotor, and ignition coil are all BWD. I know it's not OEM but i guess it will have to do.

I paid $80 for the parts above because advance auto has a bunch of coupon codes right now ($40 off $100, $35 off $85 etc...)


Thanks for the quick replies, diagnosis and helping a n00b out. Much appreciated