I realize that there are a lot of topics about cars not starting, but I haven't been able to find one that fits my situation.

As I said I have a 91 civic HB, it has a 1.6L SOHC duel-point fuel injection system. My wife and I were driving it when it just died on us at 111,000 miles. I was unable to get it started and ended up towing it home.

I grew up learning that you needed 3 things for your car to run Fuel, compression and ignition.

Ok so Fuel:

When I turn the key dash lights come on and I can hear the fuel pump running and the check engine light goes out. I have pressure at my filter but I don't have a gauge to get the actual pressure. Looking down into the area that the fuel injectors are hooked up I can see fuel being sprayed from both injectors.

So I'm assuming all is well with the fuel (just don't know exact pressure) later when I took the spark plugs out I could see and smell gas on them.

Now Compression:

I did a compression test on all 4, it didn't make me too happy but it shouldn't keep the car from starting.
The results were 170 170 120 170.

And finally Ignition:

I used a test light to see if the plugs were getting anything. All 4 flashed the test light. I checked the resistance on all wires, but I'm not sure what they should be the results of that were 8.5k ohms on #4 up to 11.5k ohms on #1.

I took out the plugs and all 4 looked good even #3. No buildup of anykind. I went ahead and replaced them with some plat plugs and replaced the cap and rotor.

I also pulled off the upper timming cover but I'm not 100% how things are set up on this engine. I lined up the top pully with 'UP' up and the lines even with the top of the head. Down lower on the cover I saw something that looked like the sights of a gun and they lined up with a very small mark on the crank pully. I'm assuming that is how you check to see if the belt has slipped? The belt looked in good shape and tension seemed ok, I'm guessing that it had been changed in its life.


One other thing that I did check was the ECU light under the carpet on the passenger side. I got code 20 (20 flashes). I unhooked my battery for a bit then hooked it back up and didn't get any more codes after trying to start it for a while.

I hope someone can tell me why I can't get it started or tell me where I went wrong, but I am out of things to try right now.

 

Problem solved!!

My test light was working but it would seem that not enough power was getting to the plug to jump the spark. Would be nice if the test light wouldn't work unless there was enough power.

Replaced the coil and started right up.