Car won't start after driving

Christophe Crowe

New Member
I am completely exhausted with this one. My civic won't start after it reaches normal operating temperature. First off, I put a brand new distributor on the car because it was losing rpm between 2000-3000. Needed a tune up anyway. Well my buddy told me all you have to do with a distributor is plug it in only goes in one way. Well I did this and it would not start, he failed to tell me you had to set the lines on the inside of the distributor. So i took it off and set it, set the car to TDC, and put it on. The car started but ran like crud and after driving it around and turning it off it would not start back up until cooled down. Well come to find out my fuel injectors were completely clogged. Took them out and cleaned them and played with distributor a little while it was loose and now It runs great! No loss of rpm's runs good but it still will not crank after I turn it off until it cools down! When I turn the key to ignition I clearly hear the 2 clicks and humming from relay, the cylinder misfire codes went away after injectors were cleaned, the dizzy is brand new and I heard the CPS was inside of it on the D16Y8 engines. I stumped dude

I had also turned the crank pulley while setting the car to TDC, I had to do this numerous times. I may have turned the pulley a few times clockwise, I did not know that I only could turn it counter clockwise until recently. When I did turn it clockwise it could not of been more than few times because it was already pretty much TDC before i started turning it. I have not took off timing cover and looked at belt yet scared to.
 
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Honda9206

Working on the 92 DX
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
There are alot of things that have been done wrong here. First and foremost quite driving it like this. Do not crank it back up until you have deteremined you have checked all the possiblities. You could serioulsly be damaging your engine right now.

1) You changed your dizzy but did change your spark plugs and wires. Also did you check the gapping on the spark plug to make sure it was correct.
2) Are you noticing any smoke or anything when you did get it to finally crank (white, blue, black)
3) Check your timing belt ASAP. You could have seriously messed things up just randomly cranking on the crank.
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
Yes i changed plugs and wires a couple of weeks before i bought the dizzy. There is no smoke coming from engine. i am checking belt tomorrow morning.
 


Esotericimage

Taking an H-T break
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Hmm, do you hear the fuel pump prime when trying to crank it when warm?

Cracked relay solder does crazy things.
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
so i checked the timing belt n it looks good everything lines up. i took the main relay out n there is no rings around the stubs but one of them has a rusty ring all the way around the stub and the joint? whats that about
 

Esotericimage

Taking an H-T break
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Looks like the rust is causing an issue.

when the relay gets hot, the solder/metal expands causing a short.

Replace it and then go from there.
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
Not the relay. I actually went out and bought a brand spanking new one and sure enough still same silly problem. This is ridiculous!
 

Esotericimage

Taking an H-T break
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
you still didnt answer my question..


When you turn the key to ON when its cold, you should hear the fuel pump prime..

Do you hear it prime after its at operating temp?


Im putting my money on either the fuel pump or pump relay
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
I'm still having the problem unfortunately. When the civic heats up yes I still hear the pump priming and it is still getting fuel pressure. But I have learned when it acts like it don't want to start I can just hold the gas pedal while turning the key and after several seconds it cranks shitty and then I just stop turning key and keep holding down gas pedal and it eventually idles out. Then I can drive it fine it just doesn't have horsepower.
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
When you turn the key to ON when its cold, you should hear the fuel pump prime..

Do you hear it prime after its at operating temp?


Im putting my money on either the fuel pump or pump relay[/QUOTE]
And I have put it on a computer and it shows no codes and performed all kinds of test with computer n it shows all my specs are being met.
 

xxBLOOD88SHOTxx

Surge Master
Registered VIP
Wow, CHECK ENGINE LIGHT is what CEL is you stupid ass, and I forgot how good at trouble shooting mechanics these days are. In fact your mechanic is soooo good that you're here asking US to fix your car for you.

NEW distributors don't mean s**t, they can have bad ignitors and coils just like old ones, and you didn't mention s**t about the ECT ANYWHERE. I guess it is "passing all these tests" so there is nothing wrong with your car then right? Hope it keeps running perfect then d**k.
 

Christophe Crowe

New Member
lol i was just saying no there is no CELs. The distributor has been taken to the shop and tested and it checks out. And no the ECT has not been checked
 


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