91 Civic Not Starting (with weirdness)
The car is an 1989 Civc std (D15B1 engine) Dual point fuel injection.
It lost power at 65 mph, engine then died. Coasted to a stop within 1/2 mile of when problem started. Cat was glowing dull red. Start attempts gives occasional "poof" sound from the exhaust.
No trouble codes from the ECU. Rebooted ECU. Has spark. Valve timing and timing belt are ok. Have observed main injector pulsing and smell gas when cranking. Injector resistances within spec. Sensor resistance for TDC position and Crank angle are within spec. Checked Cat, grids intact, not slagged.
Then I checked timing by cranking. On the #1 cylinder the timing marks were no-where to be found. On the #2 cylinder the marks were clearly visible at the marks on the timing cover.
My first reaction, WTF????. But I think I know what's happening now.
I would like someone else to come to the same conclusion I did prior to my saying it since it seems so improbable.
Anyone willing to take a shot at it?
I promise to let everyone know what I find when I can get back to work on it in a couple of days.
Hi This sounds like a tipical fuel problem.Check the fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator. I't might be that the regulator is f**kt.
Sounds like a defective cat converter. The car lost power first, then it died. The converter was glowing red...indicating restriction. Keep in mind the car is 17 years old. Funny though, the ECU should flash a fault code. If you check under the passenger side carpet, I bet it's flashing a code. Check with Pacesetter for an aftermarket high flow cat converter. It will be less money than getting a comporable factory unit and it will give you a slight HP increase.
No way!...it would not have lost power first or have a red hot converter.
Hi Logan Do you have those obd codes? I have them 4 you. Do you have a pic of your Honda?
Well the timing marks is what worrying me. Sounds like either the belt jumped or i have seen the keyway on the cam sprocket sheer off and cause the cam gear to spin on the cam. What did u come up with???
First, thanks for all of your ideas. Second, let me say that I was wrong about what I thought it was. I thought it was a sheared pin in the distributer coupler to the cam shaft. What I thought would be so improbable was that the shaft would have to jam 90 degrees off proper position. It would fit as the cam timing was correct (yes I checked both the shaft and sprocket alignment) but the spark timing was off. It also fit the red hot cat as the hot cat would be fed unburned gas due to the lack of proper spark. Since it would be a pure mechanical failure the ECU wouldn't be flashing codes. The weak part of my argument was the loss of power prior to the engine dying. It should have just died. Today I found what was wrong. The root of the problem was the distributor bearing binding. How, you might ask, could this cause the timing to shift? Let me tell you what I found when I set #1 cylinder to TDC and pulled the distributor cap. As expected from the timing check the rotor was at the #2 position. When I took a closer look at the rotor I saw that it had melted. The heat from the binding bearing was transmitted up the distributor shaft where it softened the plastic until the set screw plowed its way through the plastic allowing the timing to shift over a period of several seconds, leading to a loss of power prior to the engine dying. The plastic then hardened around the set screw and I had to chip it off to get to the screw. (See picture) So I'll be off to the junk yard tomorrow, since I sheared three torx screws trying to get at the bearing and I don't feel like extracting screws and/or re-tapping the holes.
Here you go...wanna buy it?
Its a nice ride man. I have exactly the same one, but unfortunatly i'm at the backside of earth and mine is one of two in Namibia.I cant get kits, or those angel lights locally. Whats the price?
If you click on the actual photo of ME, the site will move you to the page I've set up on the car it's self. Full details and more pictures. It was in Sports Compact Car Magazine Dec 2002 issue. Price is illrevernant...you are waaaaay over there...would cost too much to ship.
have you thought its ur alternator. that kinda keeps the charge when driveing so u dont die. or maybe ur car is ghetto like my friends and the screw fell out of the rotor on the distubitor. other than that shit the bed ditch it nd get into atleast OBD1
my ecu is flashing 6 times what that code mean ?
