4th gen civic won't start. Starter cranks? but no go. Help! Descriptive info inside..

[Civic11]

I'm trying to help my friend troubleshoot his 4th gen 1989 Honda Civic LX sedan. It is an all stock setup.

He drove it home yesterday and everything was fine. Today, he told me he tried starting it and it started and ran, but died after 2 seconds or so. He said it chugged kind of like it was running out of gas. He does not have any fuel kill switches or anything like that. At first he thought it was the battery, but once I arrived I knew it obviously wasn't that as the car had power. When I started to try and start it I noticed the starter sounded kind of weird, but ofcourse this is an older car so it could be just how the starter sounds.

It does sound like it is fuel related, where is the best place to start? I tried looking for a fuel pump fuse, but based on the fuse schematic in the car, it did not look like there was one unless it was shared with another fused.

Any info would be great. I toyed with the idea of changing the fuel filter as a start, but I don't know if there are easier places to look first.

Please let me know and thanks.

 

[si-hatch86]

check to see if main relay is clicking when you turn the key to on like your going to crank it, it is located directly above the hood release latch. while your there if the relay does click check to see if the fuel pump primes. also check the solenoid fuse thats in the under dash fuse box. another thought would be to check if you are getting spark at all, could be the coil pack and/or ignitors

 

[Civic11]

Just so everyone knows, my friend had his 89 LX sedan towed to a mechanic. It ended up being the starter and something with the electrical. I'll find out more later if I can have my friend be more specific and descriptive. The starter did sounds funny, but I would have assumed if the starter was bad that it wouldn't have turned over. Of course I'm no mechanic yet.

 

[ScratchNSniff]

give an update when you find out...i am bringin mine to the mechanic in the morning...

 

[Civic11]

give an update when you find out...i am bringin mine to the mechanic in the morning...

Will do. My friend's ride is still in the shop. He said he will give me the receipt to look at when it's done since he sucks at translating things

 

[ScratchNSniff]

thanks man...exact thing is happening to mine...

 

[ScratchNSniff]

found out anything???

 

[Civic11]

I just called my friend. He said they replaced the starter and did something with the main relay. I don't know anything about his mechanic he uses. His starter did sound weird though when I tried to start it. Hope this helps. I'm still confused on what caused it. I wonder if he screwed his own starter trying to get it to start and all it originally was was the master relayNot sure, all I remember was it was freezing and we both were lazy to work on it and had it towed.