The Run down: 94 civic hatch. While driving to work smelt burning, made it to work parking lot as my baby smoked and quit. popped the hood and wire harness melted (Yellow and black wire) replaced then found the main relay was the problem it surged and melted the plug so i replaced the harness behind the dash(the huge one on the fire wall) Now car still wont start. Replaced spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, Fuel pump works with jumper wire, but i dont hear it turn on with the key. Pulled the plugs and there's no trace of gas. Put a volt meter on the injector plugs while someone cranks and none have power. Now I have no idea what to do next. Is there a way to see if the ecu was fried in the surge? also does it matter that I have a M/T and the dash harness is for an A/T. (bypassed the clutch Long ago with start button) Had the car over 6 years and I dont want to part with it.

 

which main relay did you replace? the main fuel relay under the steering column?
any blown fuses?

 

A fuse should blow before any wires melt. (a relay can't make a "surge" to melt wires). That suggests the wiring may have been modified and fuses bypassed.

Check that the main relay is getting power where it should, I think 2 or 3 circuits feed it from different fuses but I don't have the diagram here. Also check that the ECU has power and ground. Check the ground wires on the thermostat.

 

Yes i replaced the main fuel relay. No fuses blew. While checking the fuses i did notice the Ecu fuse which is supposed to have a 15 amp had a 30 amp fuse. Could that be why the wire melted before any fuses blew? When checking the ground at the thermostat should it be a steady 12v or less. Any ideas of what might have caused a surge like that?

 

Ground wires should all be very close to zero volts relative to the minus post of the battery (measure to the lead post that is part of the battery not the terminal on the car wire).

Go through and check all fuses and replace with proper size. There is probably a wire (one of the yellow/black wires) touching ground intermittently somewhere. If you use a fuse that is too large it will burn up the wires instead of merely blowing the fuse.

 

What kind of number would be an insufficient ground? The connections on the driver side that go through the firewall (by master and clutch cylinders) is the only wires i havent checked i'll pull that and check those. They were in direct line of the burnt wire but none seemed to be melted.

 

The Thermostat ground reads 0. I tested the map sensor plug and that was also 0. The check engine light is staying on when i the key in the on position. I'm going to get another ecu and try that.