1995 Civic, D15B7 engine, 156k miles, 5 sp manual

This no start problem happened the first time at the beginning of October, now it happened a second time 2 days ago. On a cold start, with no warning, the engine turns over but showed no signs of life. Eventually, after quite a bit of cranking, pausing, more cranking, the engine started to slowly sputter stronger and stronger. Once the sputtering started, about 15 seconds more cranking and it fired up roughly, then cleared up and ran fine like it always has, as if there was never a problem. The first time this happened, I had full fuel pressure, the pressure regulator was working, I had spark in all cylinders. My hunch at the time was lack of fuel. But, the only thing I had to base that on was that as I took each plug out and cranked it to check the spark, I didn't smell any raw gas in the spark plug holes, which I would have expected. The second time, I played with the throttle while cranking, half throttle seemed to get it kicking better than full or none, but not much better. Hard to troubleshoot it now, it starts and runs beautifully, has no check engine light.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is there any component that typically goes bad on these engines that would cause such a problem?

 

i think that i had the same problem too, does it do it only on cold days and is it damp outside in the morning? When was the last time you plugs and wires changed? I know it was the problem in my car. It would take forever to get it to start and it seemed like it was misfiring or something. I would have to hold the gas down and it would start ver very rough and idle at like 250 rpm and the only way i could get it idle normally was to rev it above 5000 rpm. It actually turned out that the plug wires were actually cracked and were arcing with the cylinder. It hasnt done that ever sense i got them changed them so i would try that.

 

the last post from ParisDakar is a verry good place to start one other thing you could try if changing the plugs and wires dosent resolve the issue is next time it happens try spraying a little gas or starting fluid in at the throtel body if it cranks right up, i would look at the fuel system i had a problem with mine one time where every thing seemed to be ok all lights would come on engine would turne over but it wouldent start then i started to listen closely toy what it was doing when i turned the key and i notice the fuel pump wasent kicking on it was the master relay its really 2 relays in one, one side is for your fuel pump i replaced it and everything was ok even tho handa said they never go bad [:-] .

 

P.S. the relay is located by the fuse block under the driver side dash

 

have u recently done a engine swap in yours? mine used to do that to. it took almost 12 hours of shop time to fix the problem. and 12 hours, three relays, one cap, one rotor, new wires, new plugs, throttle body spacers, and redjusting the throttle body blades, later it was fine. the shop that fixed it spent almost 6 hours on it. and only charged me for 2 hours. they went over it from head to tail. checked everything. when it happened to me it would only happen when it first started to get col. and yes when i was damp in the morning as well. and it seemed to always happen to me on like every third tuesday on the day that i had a test in my AP lab. but they got it fixed. i would say the same thing start with the cheap stuff, everything ignition wise. who knows maybe you'll get lucky