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1999 Civic VP 1.6 Liter Crank No Start
Long time reader, First time poster.. LOL.. sorry, the older crowd will get it. First and foremost thank you for this outstanding website. It is an ultimate resource that I have used several times. Now on to the issues.
I purchased the civic for $200 from a guy at work with it in the current Crank No Start condition thinking at worst I could scrap the parts on ebay or craigslist and make my money back. Has about 108,000 miles on it and in very good physical condition. According to the previous owner he took a corner coming in to work at a high rate of speed (~40 mph) did not crash or wreck but suddenly the car died and would not start again. That was 4 months ago. I take it to the home shop and have testing the following (although not necessarily in this order):
-Checked all fuses in both the engine compartment and inside the car. All good including testing of relays and auto reset fuses.
-Timing marks upper and lower are spot on (removed valve cover and upper timing cover).
-New spark plugs and properly gapped each verified to have a bright white spark at each plug out of the cylinder. Even left one too close to the cylinder and it ignited the vaporized fuel coming out LOL.
-Fuel pressure at the filter and at the fuel rail (no guage setup to check actual pressure).
-Fuel is getting into the cylinder plugs wet(removed plug cables and left plugs in while turning over).
-Visually observed vaporized fuel blowing from each cylinder.
-Tried starting fluid. Engine did not detonate.
-Main relay tested good to fuel pump and ECU (tested even though I could hear the fuel pump prime).
-Assume ECU is good (Check engine light comes on for three seconds and then goes off). Scanner does not reveal any codes.
-Firing order verified and verified and verified……
-Cylinder compression dry (after sitting for months) was 100, 110, 110, 100. Wet (induced a little oil into the cylinders) was ~125 across the board. The engine did cough twice just after the oil was added but then no more.One question that I have is if my coil could be weak. I know that its not a good way to verify but with a fluke voltmeter connected to the coil spring I only get 12 vdc while the ignition is in run condition and 14-16 vdc while starter is actuated.
Thank you guys in advance for your help. And if I missed something obvious please don’t rub it in too much… LOL
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Fuel pressure is good at 50 psi. Voltage and ohms were good in the injectors. Will dig into the distributor again today.
Well, after yesterday here is where we are.. still won’t even try to start up…
Crank and cam timing is good to go
Rotor lines up with No. 1 on the distributor at TDC for No. 1
Plugs have a white spark and fire verified with plug tester
Ignition coil sparks through plug tester.. (LMAO verified when it shocked the piss out of me!!!)
50 lbs of fuel pressure at rail
Injectors ohm’s and voltage good
Injector rail is grounded
O2 sensor 1 removed and have pressure and the smell of fuel
Throttle body intake is unobstructed and has vacuum
Verified that the key ignition is not cutting out in run positionAfter about 25 hours of assessing this thing I’m at a loss and about to just start parting this thing out.
let’s do a little triage:
If it doesn’t start with starting fluid, BUT there is strong spark and at the right time, AND the valves are timed right, then we’re short of ideas, exempt maybe that it’s really, deeply flooded with gas, or there is a major exhaust blockage right at the cat.
At that point I would:l
(1) Hook up a manifold vacuum gauge. With a good cranking speed, do you get 10 or more inches of vacuum? If so, the valves are timed right.
(2) pull the fuel pump fuse or relay and crank the engine for 30 seconds, gas pedal to the floor. Wait 5 minutes and do it again. That has a good dance of airing out the cylinders. Now try starting it with a blast of starting ether. If it runs or stumbles for a few seconds you can try putting in the FP fuse and seeing if it now starts.
(3) unhook the exhaust down pipe from the exhaust manifold. Sometimes the cat converter insides just crumble and block things up really well. Not very common but we need to eliminate everything.
Thnk you. Wifeys bday today so everything is shutdown… lol but i will get it done in the next day or so.
this evening I removed the injector electical plugs and covered the intake to check for vacuum again with my hand and it turned over A little. it does this a little bit every time I do this but will not start. At least im making headway… lol
Any suggestion? Im a carb guy dont know much about them. And havent found the symtpoms in any variation on the net.
You disconnected the injectors so there was no more fuel going into the engine, then cranked it, and got it to stumble.
Perhaps it is indeed flooded. As grg8888 suggested, I would go ahead and pull the fuel pump fuse. Crank the engine a few times with the throttle completely open, then try a squirt of starting fluid and see if it stumbles / fires up on that.
If it does, put the fuel pump fuse back in, and try to start it up.
At this point, you might want to make sure you charge up the battery too. If the battery is getting weak, that might stop it from starting as well.
It sounds like it might be flooded. You don’t need to disconnect anything. Just hold your foot to the floor on the gas and it will put it into ‘clear flood mode’. This will turn the injectors off until you release the pedal again. If it is flooded bad enough not to start, then you’ve likely lost compression. You’ll need to crank for a while before you get the compression back. Try not to crank for too long (more than 30 sec or so) at any one sitting as you could burn up the starter.
Also given that you stated that you have fuel smell coming from the exhaust I would say this is a good theory.
Keep us posted.
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