I am in a love hate relationship with a 98 Civic 1.6L. This problem is intermittent. Some times (varies. hence intermittent) the car wont start. I can spray starting fluid in it, and it will fire up, stumble for second and run fine. Starter, alternator and battery are good, new cap, rotor, plugs, wires, good fuel pressure. Some times this problem will happen if the car sits 15 minutes or after 15 hours, it has a mind of its own. Like I said love hate. Any help would be appreciated.

 

So it will crank but not start? Did you check for spark? Distrubutors don't last forever but I'm not sure how you would go about testing that. A bad coil can be intermittant, as well.

 

It will fire if i use starting fluid and run fine after i do, so I'm 100% sure it has spark. I'm thinking the injectors are leaking and washing out the cylinders or the ignition control module is going out.

 

Do you have a service manual? I can check mine, this weekend if no one else has any ideas.If the injectors are leaking, couldn't you tell by checking fuel pressure?

 

In theory yes, you would think to check fuel pressure but it builds pressure fine at the filter port. If the injectors are leaking it just looses pressure from the filter to the injectors. So if I cycle the key a few times, the pressure will build back to the injectors. If it is leaking and I use starting fluid to start the car, the alcohol in the starting fluid evaporates the excessive fuel in the cylinders and then it will fire up. Again this is in theory. I am leaning towards the ignition control module, I think when I test the module it will fail the saturation test. If it does then I know the spark will be to weak to ignite the fuel. With the strange weather I have been getting here, the module would make sense. The hot cold hot cold weather would cause moisture to get in the module and cause a weak spark. I am going to test it today and see if it is a pass or fail.

 

Any news?

 

Well, the ignition module tested bad. But, didn't fix the issue. It helped but didn't completely fix it. I am going to take the fuel rail off today and see if the injectors are leaking..