Hi, I just spent the weekend changing the timing belt on my 2002 civic. The old one had 100000 thousand miles on it and I decided it needed to be change. I made sure it was at TDC and all the timing marks on the cam and crank were where they should be. Put the new belt on and made sure timing marks were still where they were supposed to be. Put everything back together and now it won't run. Tries to start and maybe backfires but won't start. Took it back apart and all timing marks were where they were supposed to be. When I took the sparks plugs out initially they looked good. They were gray white. Now after trying to start it they are black I assume that timing is screwed up somehow but don't know how to fix it. Can being off a tooth or too cause this big a problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

i don't know if the same thing can be done but i did one on a dodge charger(the little 4 banger) and was told to turn the motor over by hand three time's to make sure it lines back up

 

Turned it over several times and each time it appeared to be right on the marks

 

Did you look at the marks before taking the old belt off to make sure you are reading them correctly? You can confirm the crank is at TDC by probing in the cylinder. The marks for the crank use the little dot on the timing belt pulley, NOT the key slot in the crankshaft.

On distributorless engines, the sensor on the crankshaft is critical for it to run.

If the engine has been cranked with the belt on wrong, there may be valve damage.

 

Double check plug wires goes to where they should be.

 

I made sure the marks are where they were supposed to be. Mark on crankshaft pulley lined up with arrow on engine and cam pulley was in up position with hashmarks on pulley lined up with engine head. When bottom timing cover and balancer pulley are on marks are lined up where they are supposed to be. Using the white mark on balancer pulley. If it is off by one tooth would this cause the car not to start at all?

 

Okay, Did a compression check on all cylinders. It was a cold check since obviously I can't start it. All the cylinders were 175, 176 so I don't think there was any valve damage done. Going forward one tooth car doesn't even try to start whereas it was at least sputtering and backfiring where I thought the timing was was supposed to be. Backing up one tooth it gasped once or twice but less than when I though everything was lined up perfectly. Could crankshaft position sensor have gotten damaged and caused these symptoms?

 

Possible crank sensor??

 

How do you go about testing crank sensor? If sensor was no good would you still have fuel being pumped. When I try to start it it is definitely getting fuel.

 

Check for ECU codes. Is the sensor plugged in and the wires not damaged? It's possible to get the wires tangled up in the crank pulley or belts.