My wife has a 90 civic that we bought a couple of years ago
our first honda, loads of miles, but well maintained, the guy gave us a folder with all
his repair info, ( I do the same thing). I am an aircraft mechanic, and have been working on cars all my life.

The problem. when the outside temp gets hot ie summer
the car will not start, but it's random, most often happens when the car has been run.
but once happened when the car sat in direct sun all day.
the starter will crank the engine, but no spark to the plugs.
let it cool off and it will start
a couple of days ago it was 95 outside car won't start after she gets out of grocery store
man was she pissed
a thunderstorm comes through and cools the temp to 75, car starts.
so I don't think it is a problem with the temp of the car being run
but a outside temp issue.

someone here suggested the master relay, said that when they get hot
bad solder joints in the relay expand and lose contact,
this makes sense and is inline with my thinking.

they also suggested that the ignitor could be the problem.

I went to my chilton manual, found no listing for ignitor
and all it said about master relay was that it is under the left dash.

can anyone tell me if the relay has any way to id it, markings etc
and what do you mean by ignitor, in a jet an ignitor is the same as a spark plug
but I have never heard this term used in a gas engine.

thanks
this place is great

 

Ok so I posted this without reading all the new post and
duh, what do you know a couple of post down the guy with the 93 stalling problem
had all kinds of info and the same sort of problem
as well as a link to a site that told how to repair the master relay
I am going out now to pull the relay, and what do you bet that I am going to find
that the relay has bad solder connections.

 

that may be the link that i found when i decided to start troubleshooting the cause of my "no start" problem - which takes place whenever i turn it off and try to restart it very soon. but it does not happen all the time. my relay was OK, though.

if it's not the relay, that sounds like the way the coils would sometimes go out - at least years ago. i'm not around cars like i was then when i worked at a gas station and went to high school.
so, i don't know if they exhibit those symptoms or not.
would be interested to know if it was the relay.

 

the igniter is also called the ignition control module.
it is inside the dist , under the coil; it is in the 3 oclcok to 6 oclock position as you are looking at the dist.
the troubleshooting techniques mostly involve the circuits going into it. have to go to dealer to get troubleshooting of the unit itself - at least according to the haynes manual.

 

main(master) relay will most likely be the culprit. remove and resolder the joints and reinstall. one of the biggest problems with out cars aside the ignitor box. you wont be able to see a crappy joint but youll see heated up melted looking rosin. re heat the joints and add a little more solder and usually in almost all cases thats the fix. when the main relay is not working properly you will not hear it click on or off under the dash.