95 Civic EX won't start.. help?
 

Hey guys, I was hoping I could introduce myself another way (like bragging about my car or something)..

Alas, my very first message is a call for help.. :(

I've got a 95 Civic EX (1.6L VTEC) that won't start. It's been running great for the whole week that I've owned it, until now. :rolleyes: Today, I performed a much needed tuneup on it. Replaced Air Filter, oil and filter, ignition cap, rotor, wires, and plugs. It ran much nicer after all the work done for about 45 minutes. While on my way home from my buddy's place (where I did the work) it simply died. I had just driven 15 miles on the freeway, and was driving down one of the surface streets around 40mph in 4th gear when it suddenly just died as if I had turned the key to "off".

I have power everywhere, it will crank over no problem. Timing belt is not broken (I looked into the oil cap while wife cranked it and saw rockers moving) and as far as I can tell all my fuses are good. I pulled the cap and rotor thinking that might've been the culprit since they were changed less than an hour before and tried to arc the coil to ground. No spark while cranking. I >do< have an alarm on it, though I'm not sure what kind, and I've always assumed alarms only disable the starter (which cranks the motor over just fine).

My next step is to test the coil to see if its bad. I'm curious though if a replacement cap/rotor/wires/plugs would be enough of a shock (no pun intended) to the coil to kill it?

If it ohms out okay, then I'm kind of at a loss where to look next.

Any and all suggestions are HUGELY appreciated!

Are you throwing a check engine light? If so, check the code.

It sounds to me like it is probably the ignitor coil.

Dang, I knew I forgot to add something.. Check Engine light didn't come on before this happened. Nothing strange happened before it died. Also, for what its worth, it's a 5-speed.

I'll do some testing with a meter tonight after work.

Put your old wires, cap and rotor back on and try it again. Don't worry about the plugs unless you didn't gap them before installing them. You might have picked up some defective parts. If that doesn't work, and the distributor harness is plugged in tight, see if you can borrow one from someone else's car to test your car with first... just make sure you have a timing light handy to put their car ignition in time with (or mark their distributor's position before you remove it).

mines died on the highway..engine just shut off while driving. so i had to replaced distrubtor. actually the first time it died out, it didn't start up untill the next day. second time it died, it didn't start back up.

Well, I did some testing and I've got 12v to the two coil wires with the key on. I ohmed out the coil and the primary windings ohm out just a tad below spec, maybe 1k at most.

I'm skeptical about putting the old dist cap and rotor back on because they were both trashed. The spring loaded center electrode on the cap was worn flat (no spring, no electrode). Strangely the car ran with it. Sigh.

I went to Autozone and bought a new coil ($80) and ICM ($165..ouch). After work, I'll try one or both of these and hope for the best. If anyone cares, I'll let you know what the outcome is.

Hope you figure it out. I had a similar problem a while back where my car wouldn't start. It ended up being my ECU. ECU's don't go out very often, but it is a possibility.

Did you gap your plugs when you installed them? Also, can you hear the fuel pump turn on then you turn your key to the on position?

Good luck man. Let us know the outcome.

Even stranger things have happened. I was working on a 1.9L Ford Escort (carb injected) and it had idle problems. I unplugged the injector (it only has 1) while the engine was running, and it kept running. The car owner and 2 mechanics were watching... All of our heads nearly exploded... but then I figured it out.

The regulator was leaking internally (couldn't see it) and enough fuel was leaking down into the carb for it to actually run and idle. None of us had ever seen anything like it.

I hope it works out for you.

Swapped out the coil and she fired right up. Talk about weird. All my readings when I metered the coil looked decent (not COMPLETELY in spec, but close).

Well, that means I can return this overpriced wafer of electronics they call an ICM. $165 for that part is just dumb. Bad enough I had to pay $80 for a coil. I thought Honda parts were cheap? :confused:

Anyway, thanks for the input! :goodjob:

-Jason

Glad it worked out, I was about to suggest the coil as well, that's exactly what happened to me.