vallumlj

have just got my brothers 1993 jap civic sir and it will not start. The car was runnning six months ago fine as he had just had a engine rebuild. In the last six months it has just be stood there as he bought a new car and he decided now to give it to me.


The car had a flat battery so i connected some jumps leads to it and find out it will not start at all. I got the car towed to a garage and they have a quick check over the main thing s and they noticed they cant get a spark from the engine. I thought this might be a alarm problem so i had it removed today and it will still not start.


The garage have told me i need to get it plug into a computer to find out what is wrong with it. I have been told it could be the coil packs.
.

thanks for the help

fast bloke

If you don't want to pay for expensive computer diagnostics, take one of the plugs out and put it on your tounge. Turn the car over. If it tastes like petrol then your coil packs have corroded. If it gives you spikey hait then your fuel pump is fecked

Dracoro

A computer?!? Don't they have mechanics? Any competent mechanic should be able to initially diagnose a non-starting problem on a 14 year car without the use of a computer.

2 things you can figure out yourself to save some time and money.
Are all plugs sparking?
Is fuel getting in?

330uk

Its your distributor. The only thing to fail on 90's Honda's. Some Rovers have same distributor. Seen the problem on loads of Hondas not just civic, effected the Accord as well.

mart360

If its the honda twin cam, with PGF1 injection then look under the passenger footwell, theres usually the main ecu there, if its like the honda engine used in the rover Tomcat, it will have an ecu with a led blinking fault codes at you.

if it is the dizzy, budget £400 from a dealer,


if not check the obvious from the back foreward,


fuel, fuel pump fuel lines usually if the dizzy is kaput you will be in limphome mode, cel lit and max 3000 rpm

plugs etc....


chack the immobiliser is working also

Mart

Shark Man

IIRC early honda PGM-Fi have a flashing diagnostic light on the top of the ECU (located in passenger footwell, under the carpet). Which will give basic fash codes of any faults when the ignition is switched on.

Can't remember codes, so don't ask me.

But it's probably the dizzy, as mention above; They are very prone; simply because it has the amplifier, coil, and three cam sensors all contained within the same unit. If one part fails, the engine won't run (or will run badly).

Shark Man

Christ, 10 mins without a post then two people post the same thing

vallumlj

The dizzy i thought all the sensors were in the coil packs on these cars.

There is no spark at all anywhere.

mart360

you dont have a coil pack as such, you have a coiless dizzy with a ignitor box

this runs the sparks to each plug (hence only 4 leads on the dizzy)


do a search for PGM Fi blink codes.


yawn done it for you
http://www.importpoweronline.com/chrishill/crx/zcspecs.html#ECU's


it may not be exact but its a start


when mine failed (84k) it just went into limp home mode, and capped the ignition map to a max of 3k rpm and lit the light on the dashboard.


until you have the blink code its speculation and will only delay procedings


Mart

Eddie1980

I'd agree, get yourself a new distributor imported from the USA, it'll be 1/3rd the cost of a local one. These are about the only things to fail on the old civics, but they do seem to go like light bulbs.