My niece owns a 91' Civic with about 170,000 miles on it. Occasionaly it chooses not to start. It turns over fine (new battery) but it just wont fire. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when it does it. It has done it when the engine is cold and warm as well as in all kinds of weather. Sometimes it will start again a few hours later, sometimes it takes a day or two to decide to start. When it finally does start it starts up fine, runs fine and never dies when it is running. The last time it didn't start I was able to check out the car and established that there was indeed spark at all 4 plugs so I would think it is some type of random fuel problem. Any ideas?

thanks

 

might change your ditributor cap and rotor, if those are good it could be plug wires or plugs depending on how old they are. Also your coil or ICM maybe going bad.

If you would like to read possible codes on your ECU, look under the carpet below your glove box and your ECU should be there. It has an LED light that blinks. Turn on the ignition (without starting) and count the blinks.

Here are the codes

0-ECU
1-Oxygen content
3 or 5-Manifold Absolute Pressure
4-Crank Angle
6-Coolant Temp
7-Throttle Angle
8-TDC Position
9-No. 1 cylinder position (1.6l)
10-Intake Air Temperature
12-Exhaust Gas Recirculation system (1.5l CAL: A/T)
13-Atmospheric Pressure
14-Electronic Air Control
15-Ignition output signal
16-Fuel Injector
17-Vehicle Speed Sensor
19-Lock-Up Control Solenoid Valve (A/T)
20-Electric Load

 

they established it sparks bob [8D] id try repairing the main relay, 15 min of your time and you can at least check that off if it is the problem.

 

yeah guess I should have mentioned that. I'm in the same boat as vamoruso and I replaced my main relay with a new one. Didn't help.

Anyway andreej you should be able to here it click when you turn the switch to the on position if it don't it's definitly bad. It's located behind the plastic piece that runs up from your floor to the dash. If you have that little coin tray left of your steering wheel you can see the relay if you reomove it from the dash it should have seven wires going to it. It's not the litte one right above your hood release. Alot of people have said you can just rework the solder points and it'll work again which is definitly worth a try. I replaced mine and it cost $70 from my honda dealership.

Another thing I just learned about yesterday 89-91 civics and acuras would sometimes be able to be jumpstarted and run when the igniter was going bad which made it difficult to detect.