MissM

I have a 5spd 95 Honda Civic Dx. Yesterday out of the blue it wouldn't start. Thought I must have run the battery down, hooked jumper cables up but still wouldn't crank. Someone else got it and cranked it up, but when they turned it off it wouldn't crank again. I had to push it off and pop the clutch. Let it run for a while to try to charge the battery still no luck. Wouldn't turn over at all, so had to pop the clutch twice more. Thought it might have been the clutch petal safety switch, only to find out that I'm pretty sure it's the starter because it "clicks" and smokes when you turn the key to crank it.

So I popped the clutch again to come back home and now it's sputtering. When it's just idling it sounds fine, but when you give it gas it's sputtering, and slow to accelerate through all 5 gears. In 1st to 2nd it sputters so bad it feels like it wants to stall out. I tried cutting it off and back on a few times and it is still the same. Any ideas?

ChrisS

It's not too hard to pull the starter and take it down to the local auto parts store for testing.

The sputtering is probably because the ECU is in "limp" mode.
A few things to do:
-pull the ECU fuse for 5 minutes (to reset the ECU)
-inspect and clean all the grounds (valve cover, thermostat*, transmission, main body, negative battery terminal) One dirty or corroded ground could have you chasing ghost problems for a long time.
-if the negative battery cable looks iffy, think about replacing it with one from honda.
*the ground at the thermostat is the main ground for the ECU.
-clean the positive battery terminal
-check the positive cable connection to the starter