98 Civic Died in traffic, won't start
 

Ok, I have a 98 EX, 220K miles. Tonight I was pulling out into traffic and with no prior warning, it died. I thought maybe I had just stalled, so I tried to restart with no luck. Coasting along in the turn lane on a downhill slope, I put it in third gear and when my speed was up far enough, I popped the clutch to "push start" it. It kind of started - running at an extremely low rpm, so low I could hardly hear it, but when i gave it gas to go, it just died out. I coasted to a parking lot and tried to start it several times. When I turn the key, I can hear the fuel pump hum, and the engine turns over just fine. It just won't fire off. I'm completely lost as to where to start with this, and I would appreciate some tips on what to check/change first.

Thanks, all!

Check the cam timing, timing belt may have skipped. After confirming that's OK see if you have sparks.

How do I check cam timing?

Take off the upper plastic timing belt cover so you can see the camshaft pulley. You will need to partly remove the valve cover to get the cover unhooked. Make sure the key is off, turn the crankshaft counterclockwise by hand (using a socket wrench on the pulley bolt) until the marks on the cam pulley line up. That is when the word "UP" is at the top and the two slash marks are aligned with the edge of the head. If the engine is in time, the crank should also be at TDC at this point, the plastic pointer on the lower cover pointing at the single notch mark on the pulley.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge, can the belt slip without failing completely? I've heard people say that timing belts will fail and the engine will race. Can it just slip and get things out of time? If so, is this a sign that the timing belt is on its way out, or just a tensioner or something?

If the timing belt fails entirely the engine will not run at all, and it may suffer internal damage. The belt can also skip. Skipping one or two teeth causes a sudden loss of performance, beyond that it will not run at all. If the belt has skipped it must be replaced-- first it must have gotten old and loose in the first place, and secondly there is going to be damage to the teeth from skipping.

But this is only one of the things that could be causing your problem, you asked what to check first.

1. What do you mean by damage to the teeth? Having not yet replaced a timing belt, I'm not sure what you mean by teeth.

2. Let's say that after an inspection, the engine is still in time. Could it be something else like a cap and rotor gone bad or something? What would be next in the line of troubleshooting?

Thanks again for your time-

Well, I got up there last night and checked the spark plug firing - no spark. Replaced the Cap and rotor (the old ones were VERY worn) and still no start. So, I replaced the distributor assembly too and that did the trick. Cheaper than a timing belt change, but still almost $300. :(

Yeah you probably just needed to swap out the ignition coil that's contained inside the distributor, far more common for the coil to go bad than the distributor.

Glad you got it going.

Dang. Wish I had known that. Is there any way to bench check the distributor for coil failure?